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THE TWO 

GREAT QUESTIONS 

THE EXISTENCE OP GOD 

AND 

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 



BY 

LYSANDER HILL 



CHICAGO 

REGAN PRINTING HOUSE 

1909 



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Copyright, 1909, by LYSANDEB HILL 



Copyrighted and Eegistered at Stationers' Hall, London, 

England, by Lysander Hill, of Chicago, 

Illinois, U. S. A. 

1909 



All rights reserved 



®CU 251^40 






DEDICATED 
TO EDITH, MY WIFE. 



PREFACE 

The Atlantic Monthly for September, 1909, contains (pp. 
335-341) an article by Mr. George Hodges, on "The Expecta- 
tion of Immortality/' which is of great interest in view of the 
arguments and conclusions set forth in this volume. Mr. 
Hodges' article relates to the ten lectures already delivered 
at Harvard University on the Immortality of Man, under the 
provision of a foundation established by Mr. George Gold- 
thwait Ingersoll for a lectureship on that subject. The lec- 
tureship permits a free discussion of the great question, and 
has resulted in the delivery by well known thinkers of a series 
of annual essays on the question whether there are, or are not, 
any proofs of Man's immortality. 

Mr. Hodges divides the ten lecturers into five classes — two, 
Professor Ostwald and Professor Osier, physicists; two, Pro- 
fessor William James and Professor Eoyce, psychologists; 
two, Mr. Dole and Dr. Crothers, Unitarian ministers; two, 
President Wheeler and Dr. Bigelow, illustrating the theme by 
reference, respectively, to the religious ideas of ancient Greece 
and of modern India; and two, Dr. Gordon and Mr. John 
Fiske, classed by Mr. Hodges as philosophers. 

The two physicists are unable to find in their department 
anything confirming or even suggesting the notion of immor- 
tality — although one of them expresses his belief in it. Mr. 
Fiske sees in the inability of the physicists to affirm immor- 
tality nothing which raises the slightest prima facie presump- 
tion against it; but he agrees with them in the opinion that 
it is impossible to prove the immortality of man from the 

Y 



vi PEEFACE 

facts with which the physicist deals, and he finds it equally 
impossible even to imagine the conditons under which such 
an everlasting life might proceed. He considers the whole 
subject as necessarily confined to the domain of psychology. 

The two psychologists believe in the immortality of the 
soul. Professor James finds in the materialistic formula, 
"thought is a function of the brain/' no objection to our faith 
in immortality; for the brain-function may be merely the 
function of transmitting thought instead of the function of 
producing it. Professor Eoyce finds in the consciousness of 
individual personality unanswerable proof that something 
exists within us which is not physical and which we call 
the soul. 

The theologians, including Dr. Gordon, believe of course 
in our possession of an immortal soul. They base their ex- 
pectation of immortality upon the fundamental assertion of 
the being of God; upon the reasonableness of the universe; 
and upon the assertion of the worth of human life. They 
concur with Professor Eoyce in the opinion that personality 
is one of the most precious facts of human life, and with 
Professor James in the conclusion that there is a life of the 
spirit, apart from the life of the body; and they believe that 
life to be of too great value to be limited to the conditions of 
earthly existence. 

Mr. Hodges does not state the conclusions reached by 
President Wheeler and Dr. Bigelow. Of the eight thinkers 
whose conclusions he does state, six acknowledge their belief 
in a future life, and two, as to be inferred from Mr. Hodges' 
report, are non-committal on the subject. 

The two physicists, of whom one believes in a future life 
although unable to prove his belief well-founded, content 
themselves with the assertion that we can learn nothing about 
the subject from the processes of physical research. 



PREFACE vii 

But are they correct in that conclusion? Undoubtedly, 
they thought they were when they wrote their lectures; but 
since that time, recent as it is, much has been learned from 
physical research. It has been learned, for example, that 
thought is not originated by the brain, nor by any part of it, 
but by an immaterial something which uses the brain for the 
purpose of giving thought expression. With that additional 
knowledge, which was not available to them at the time when 
their essays were written, it can no longer be said that the 
processes of physical research teach us nothing bearing on the 
subject of man's immortality. The recent discovery, that 
thought is not originated by the brain, is an unequivocal con- 
firmation of the views of Professor James, Professor Royce, 
and the theologians. 

And did the two physicists give heed to nature's evidences 
of the existence of God? If they did not, it is no wonder 
that they failed to find, in their department of research, any 
evidence of man's immortality. If, for instance, they had 
previously reached the unalterable conviction that the pro- 
cesses of nature can be explained only in terms of evolution, 
their minds were already so preoccupied as to be practically 
incapable of considering the subject of man's immortality. 

It has been my purpose, in writing this volume, to outline 
the whole scientific argument upon the two great questions of 
God's existence and man's immortality — two questions so 
indissolubly connected that the answer to either is the answer 
to both. Lysander Hill. 

Chicago, September 6th, 1909. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Spider's Poison- Apparatus 55 

Section through the eye 65 

Front view of the eye 69 

Section through the eye of a dragon-fly 79 

Diagram of chest and diaphragm 112 

Air-pipe of fly 118 

Front view of trachea 120 

Kear view of trachea 121 

Sweat-glands and oil-glands 125 

Side view of cranium 147 

Top view of cranium 148 

Annular ligament of wrist 154 

Connecting-ligament of radius and ulna 155 

Amoebae 160 

Fossil pterodactyl 164 

Development of horse 's hoof 180 

Nebula 189 

The Brain Hemispheres 242 

Ganglion, magnified 245 

Diagram — cross-connected circuits 255 

Map of the human brain 256 

Mind-region of the human brain 259 

Motor-region of the human brain 259 

viii 



INDEX 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Introductory 9 

Causes of scepticism. Book of Genesis discredited. Only 
science can furnish proof of the existence of God. 
Paley. Lamarck. Darwin. 

CHAPTER II. 

Evolution and the Darwinian Theory 20 

Anaximander the first to suggest an evolutionary theory. 
Lamarck's theory. Darwin's "Origin of Species." 
Wilson's compendium of Darwin's Theory. Science 
unable fully to confirm Darwin's conclusions. 

CHAPTER III. 

Contrivance Proves the Action of Mind, and is the Key 

that Unlocks the Great Secret of the Universe 26* 

Characteristics of contrivance or invention. Different classes 
of contrivances. Haeckel's "Spontaneous generation" 
chemically impossible; and no answer to the evidences 
of Creative contrivance. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Contrivance Shown to Exist in the Venomous Snakes and 
not to Be Accounted for by Darwin's Theory of Evo- 
lution 36 

The Cobra. The Rattlesnake and fer de lance. 

ix 



x INDEX 

CHAPTEE V. 

PAGE 

The Spider and the Bees, Wasps and Hornets. Evolution 
Again Powerless to Explain 45 

The spider's spinning-apparatus. Spider's fangs. The de- 
fensive -weapons of bees, wasps and hornets. Pseudo- 
scientific theories that are mere conjectures. The limi- 
tations of evolution. Snakes, spiders and bees did not 
derive their weapons from a common ancestor. 

CHAPTEE VI. 

The Eye 63 

Its scientific construction. Paley's argument from the 
human eye. The snake's eye. The compound eyes of 
insects. 

CHAPTEE VII. 

The Ear 82 

Light-rays and sound-waves contrasted. Comparison of the 
ear and the telephone. The complex structure of the 
''internal ear." 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

The Nutritive System 91 

Description. The blood circulation. The lymphatic circu- 
lation. Check-valves. The leucocytes. Strange powers 
of the pyloric valve. The adrenals. The parathyroid 
glands. The placenta. Peristalsis. 

CHAPTEE IX. 

The Breathing Apparatus 110 

Description. The diaphragm. The plurae. Cause of fa- 
tigue. Necessity for sleep. Automatic action of breath- 
ing-apparatus and heart tireless. Air-tubes of fly. 
Similar contrivance in the mammalian windpipe. Con- 
struction of the gullet and windpipe contrasted. 



INDEX xi 

CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 

The Glands 124 

Chemical factories. Their office. They decompose the blood 
and lymph and combine their elements into many dif- 
ferent substances. Science ignorant of their construc- 
tion and action. Oleo-margarin. Enormous number of 
glands. Inconceivable complexity of gland structure. 
Complexity of atoms. Transformation of cartilage into 
bone. The osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Their action 
inconsistent with any theory of evolution. 

CHAPTER XI. 

The HuxMan Skeleton 145 

The skull; its structure and obvious contrivance. Attach- 
ment and office of the ligaments. The atlas and axis. 
Annular ligaments. Construction of the arm. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Evolution and Reproduction 158 

Protoplasm. Growth distinguished from the process of erys- 
talization. Earliest indications of life. Development 
of animal forms. Birds and their eggs. One of na- 
ture's "jumps". The marsupials. Provisional ar- 
rangement to enable the foetus to live without breath- 
ing. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Evolution and Design. The Range of Evolution Limited. . . . 176 
The theory of evolution strains our credulity. Design shown 
in the marsupial bones and pouch. The osteoblasts 
and osteoclasts break the continuity of evolution. De- 
velopment of the horse's foot. Fire-flies. The Gym- 
notus. Evolution limited. 



xii INDEX 

CHAPTER XIV. 

PAGE. 

Contrivance Shown in Nature 's Inanimate Works 184 

Pseudo-scientific conjectures. The fundamental dogma of 
materialism. The universe a machine. Newton's dis- 
covery. Perpetual motion. The luminiferous ether. 
Gravitation and momentum. The universe-machine ren- 
dered possible by the ether. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Same Subject Continued 198 

The purpose of the universe. Man. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Design Manifested by the Laws of Nature 200 

Another perpetual motion machine, and the nature and cause 
of its action. Professor Korn's reported discovery of 
the cause of gravitation. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Evidence of Design in the Geological History of the Globe. 214 
Geological periods. Preparing the globe for its future in- 
habitants. Coal, petroleum and natural gas. The great 
ice-age. The Earth's history written in the rocks for 
the benefit of man alone. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Science Unable to Meet These Proofs 222 

Darwin not an atheist. Huxley's views. Nicholson finds 
Darwin's Theory environed with profound difficulties. 
Le Conte and Wilson experience difficulties. Darwin's 
hypothesis of pangenesis not satisfactory to later evo- 
lutionists, who invent the hypothesis of mutations to 
take its place. Natural selection fails to explain im- 
portant facts. Haeckel's hypothesis of spontaneous 
generation a failure. The speculations of Lord Kelvin 
and Arrhenius as to the origin of life on the globe. 



INDEX xiii 

CHAPTER XIX. 

PAGE. 

The Human Brain 241 

Its structure aud complexity. The brain a telegraph. Motor 
nerves and sensory nerves. The crossed nerves that con- 
trol the eyes. Map of the brain. The mind resides in 
only one hemisphere of the brain. Muscular control is 
exercised by both hemispheres. The carpenter's case. 
Broca's discovery. Brain libraries. The mind proved 
not to be the product, function or result of the brain, 
but to be an immaterial or spiritual entity which uses 
the brain as an instrument. Motor cells probably alike 
in structure. Cells of the mental tract not alike. 



CHAPTEE XX. 



God :..... 265 

Nature reveals the attributes of God. His immanence. God 
not unknowable to man. 



PART IL 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Man. General Reflections. The Teaching of Science is 

that, God Being Eternal, Man Must be Immortal 271 

There is nothing scientifically improbable in the idea of 
man's immortality. Science finds no reason for believ- 
ing that the mind dies with the body. 



xiv INDEX 

CHAPTER XXII. 

PAGE. 

Same Subject Continued. Certain Faculties op the Mind 
■Not Adapted to this Life, but Only to the Future Life. 

Music and Speech Adapted to Both Worlds 276 

Telepathy. Experience of General Eoberts. By telepathy, 
mind communicates directly with other minds. Clair- 
voyance but a phase of telepathy. Swedenborg. Miss 
Eay. Mind-reading a phase of telepathy. In mind-read- 
ing, the mind sees the mental pictures that exist in an- 
other mind. The church of St. Thomas d'Aquin. Sev- 
eral important questions settled by telepathy. Herbert 
Spencer 's illogical argument. The moral faculty innate. 
The moral sentiments result from education and experi- 
ence. A moral lesson in the fable of Adam and Eve. 
God's moral nature revealed by man's innate moral 
faculty. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Same Subject Continued. Prevision 296 

Intuitive foreknowledge another phenomenon of the human 
mind, totally inconsistent with materialism and with 
evolution. Instances of Isaac Hill, young Leeds, Colonel 
Garesche, Carl Shurz, Richard Mansfield, Mrs. Burchell, 
Edward Glaub and Professor Allen. Predestination 
and free-will. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Conclusion 311 

God's existence and man's immortality proved facts. Ma- 
terialism powerless to explain either the immaterial or 
the material. Communion with God. Man shown to have 
believed in the future life more than half a million 
years ago. 

APPENDIX. 

Affidavit of Mrs. Allen. 



CHAPTER I. 
Introductory. 

That the works of nature present strong evidence of the 
existence of an intelligent Creator, is a truth which has long 
impressed itself with greater or less force on millions of 
observing and reflecting minds. 

But it is also true that there are millions of other persons 
equally as intelligent, observant and sincere, who are not yet 
convinced, beyond a reasonable doubt, as to the existence of 
God and the immortality of the human soul. If we could 
look into the hearts of men and read their secret thoughts, 
doubts and misgivings, we should be amazed to find to how 
great an extent, among the intelligent laymen of the Church, 
and even among its authorized teachers, that state of mind 
which is termed religious belief is really not belief at all, but 
merely religious hope. For men cannot truthfully be said to 
believe that of which they are in a constant condition of un- 
certainty. Men do not believe in the existence of God as they 
believe in the existence of their king, nor in the certainty of 
a future life as they believe in the certainty of physical death. 

The causes of such widely-prevailing scepticism and un- 
certainty are not difficult to discover; nor can it be regarded 
as unreasonable that men should insist upon competent evi- 
dence before accepting as true propositions of such enormous 
import to the human race. For "no man hath seen God," 
nor do our physical senses give us any direct evidence of His 
existence. That which the Church relies upon as revelation 
was written by man thousands of years ago. The assumption 
that the writer was "inspired" rests upon nothing but his own 

9 



10 INTRODUCTORY 

statement, and, in most cases, it has not even that feeble and 
unsatisfactory support; so that large portions of the alleged 
"revelation" come to us without either internal or external 
evidence of truthfulness or authority. To add to the growing 
doubt, the most important parts of the Book of Genesis, in- 
cluding those which profess to give a history of the creation 
of the earth and its inhabitants, the fall of man, and the great 
Deluge, have, within the last hundred years, been so entirely 
discredited by critical research and scientific discovery that 
scarcely an intelligent person can now be found, even among 
the ministry, who does not regard them as merely a collection 
of ancient Assyrian and Babylonian myths and nursery tales, 
possessing no historical value whatever. So, also, the conclu- 
sions of science, anterior to the last four centuries, have been 
found to be mere speculations and guesses, entitled to no 
credence, and possessing little interest to the present age ex- 
cept as historical curiosities and as revealing the density of 
the ignorance and error through which the race has been 
obliged to struggle upwards to the present age of comparative 
light. Even the details of history itself have been so largely 
discredited that few careful writers of the present day are 
willing to accept them as anything more than surviving 
rumors or traditions current at the periods when they were 
severally reduced to writing. We have but just begun to 
realize that the histories of wars and political intrigues have 
been composed by, or at the command of, the victors, and 
with the unfairness universally characteristic of partisanship, 
prejudice or self-interest. The fact that these things have 
been becoming in recent years more and more generally 
known, explains why the modern mind is conspicuously and 
justly sceptical as to the authority of ancient beliefs, records, 
and reasonings, and why the Church is called upon, with ever- 
increasing urgency, to establish by rigid methods of scientific 



INTRODUCTORY H 

proof the existence of God and the immortality of the human 
soul, if it can be done. And surely it can be done if there 
is a just God; for it is inconceivable that He who alone pos- 
sesses the power to make Himself known to mankind should 
have willed to remain unknown and yet to hold man responsi- 
ble for not believing in His existence. If there be a just God, 
He must have left accessible to us evidence of the most con- 
clusive character to prove His existence and His relation to 
ourselves. Nothing less than this can satisfy that intuitive 
feeling of justice and right which all normal men have in- 
herited as a fundamental element of their being. 

But, to the universal demand for light and certainty, the 
Church responds by producing, not evidence, but only its so- 
called revelations alleged to have been given to a few isolated 
individuals in a dark and remote past, and by requiring that 
the world shall accept them as true on pain of eternal damna- 
tion. And it wonders that men still doubt; that the doubt 
still spreads; that old established and long-flourishing theo- 
logical schools like that of Andover, founded in the unques- 
tioning faith and pious consecration of devoted believers in 
the not very remote past, are obliged to close their doors for 
want of students: and that, in the greatest intellectual free- 
dom and enlightenment that the world has ever known, it 
seems to be drifting into hopeless scepticism and irreligion. 

It cannot be denied that the present outlook is seriously 
disquieting, not only to those who adhere to the ancient con- 
servatism of theological teaching, but also to all who believe 
that true religion is essentially necessary to the right upbuild- 
ing of our social and political institutions and to the secure 
establishment of universal morality and rectitude; nor can 
it be denied that it is imperatively the duty of all who realize 
the dangerous tendency of modern free thought towards relig- 
ious scepticism to unite their efforts to counteract that ten- 



1% INTRODUCTORY 

dency by establishing, beyond the possibility of further doubt, 
the supreme fact that God lives and governs the universe. 
For, until that fact be conclusively established, there is no 
sure foundation for religious belief, and no certainty of truth 
in any theory of the origin, nature, or ultimate destination 
of man: but human thought will continue to be left, as it is 
today, hopelessly drifting about upon an uncharted sea of 
speculation, without rudder or compass to direct, or pole-star 
to indicate, its true course. But with the knowledge of God's 
existence and government established beyond the cavils of 
unreasonable scepticism or reasonable doubt, all minor ques- 
tions may then safely be left to the arbitrament of the future. 
They concern only non-essentials, upon which the minds of 
men will be gradually drawn together. Under the influence 
of free discussion, advancing intelligence, and growing tolera- 
tion of the opinion of others, whatever is unsound or harmful 
will become eliminated, and whatever is wholesome or true 
will survive. When men learn to conduct religious investiga- 
tion as they have already learned to conduct the investigation 
of scientific questions, as a band of brothers united for the 
discovery and establishment of truth, for the sake of truth 
alone, the progress of the world in religion will be as rapid as 
it now is in science. May that day soon come ! 

From the nature of the case, it is only to science that we 
can look to prove indubitably the existence and government of 
God and the nature and destiny of the human soul. Theology 
has failed to do it, and will always fail ; because the existence 
of God, while necessarily the foundation of all theological 
systems, is itself in the nature of a scientific fact, provable 
only by scientific methods. It is fairly within the province 
of theology to criticise the facts and reasonings upon which 
science endeavors to found its conclusions; and happily, 
science welcomes criticism when given in good faith to assure 



INTRODUCTORY 13 

the avoidance of error : but theology can be of little assistance 
to science in that way, for the reason that theologians, like 
other mortals, are too ready to accept without criticism any 
sophistry that appears to support their own theories. Meta- 
physical philosophy is of no service at all in such an investi- 
gation. In twenty-five hundred years of effort, it has con- 
tributed nothing that is of the slightest value, but has only 
succeeded in tangling up human thought in the convolutions 
of dialectic polemics. It may be regarded as heretical to say 
that neither metaphysics nor so-called revelation has proved 
anything of the existence of God or the immortality of the 
soul; but it must be said. The prevailing scepticism is con- 
clusive of the fact. 

From the scientific standpoint, there is nothing incredible 
in the theory of a direct personal revelation from God to man, 
provided it first be proved that there is a God to make such 
a revelation. The evidential weakness of all the alleged reve- 
lations that we have is inherent in the fact that the story of 
their origin comes down to us not only supported by human 
testimony alone, but by human testimony of the most sus- 
picious character. They remained for ages exclusively in the 
custody of a priesthood which could easily shape them to suit 
its own interests. In the hands of that priesthood, they were 
used as title-deeds of divine authority in the Church over the 
souls and bodies of men, and became productive of enormous 
revenues and consequently of almost unlimited temporal 
power. The great temple at Jerusalem, destroyed during the 
Eoman siege, A. D. 70, was one of the wonders of the world 
in its wealth and magnificence. Such has been the invariable 
product of all revelations relying for their genuineness upon 
the testimony of man, whether Buddistic, Braminic, Assyrian, 
Egyptian, Hebraic, Babylonian, Zoroastrian, Moslem, Peru- 
vian, Aztec, or Mormon. "By their fruits ye shall know 



14 INTRODUCTORY 

them" is one of the wisest maxims ever devised by human 
experience. The fruits of all these pretended revelations have 
been the acquisition of wealth and power by the priests, the 
multiplicity of alleged deities, great and little, the production 
of religious wars and bloodshed, the suppression of personal 
and spiritual freedom, priestly opposition to independent 
inquiry and to the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 
men, and the contrivance of rites and penalties whose fiendish 
cruelty almost defies description. The wonder is, not that the 
world now refuses to believe any revelation that is accredited 
only by human testimony, but that it ever could have been 
so simple and credulous as to believe, without absolutely con- 
clusive proof, that such pretended revelation was communi- 
cated to man by inspiration from God. The history of the 
Mormon church, however, shows that even in this present era 
of light great numbers of men can be easily humbugged into 
accepting pretended revelations without the slightest showing 
of credible evidence in their support. 

But the works of nature come with a revelation in which 
man has taken no part and can take no part. It comes to all 
ages and to all men. It needs no priesthood to interpret it, 
and holds out no inducements of wealth or power to those 
who accept it. It antagonizes no religious organization al- 
ready existing, prescribes no rites or ceremonies, interferes 
with no man's personal liberty or advancement, and promotes, 
rather than obstructs, the progress of the human race toward 
universal brotherhood and charity. It teaches us, authorita- 
tively and impressively, that even the meanest of creatures is 
entitled to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," so 
long as it does not interfere with the equal rights of others, or 
threaten the welfare of the whole. And it affirms the exist- 
ence and government of God, and proves it conclusively by 
evidence that all can verify and understand. 



INTEODUCTOKY 15 

The great question on which the enquiring mind desires 
reliable and positive information is, whether the works of 
nature, themselves, came into existence by chance, or by the 
automatic operation of the natural forces apparently inherent 
in all things, or whether, on the other hand, they were caused 
to make their appearance in the universe by the volition and 
action of a great creative Intelligence presiding over nature 
and controlling what we call its "laws." This is an all-com- 
prehensive question, the answer to which has been and will 
be awaited with anxiety. 

The works of nature are quick to respond fully and satis- 
factorily to the inquiry. Her inanimate works — the beautiful 
constellations, the wonderful solar system, the majestic moun- 
tains, the broad expanse of ocean, the resistless fury of the 
tempest, the waving banners of the aurora, the orderly recur- 
rence of the seasons — are impressive, and suggestive, of the 
existence of God; but, alone, they do not prove it. Not till 
we turn to her animate works, do we find conclusive evidence 
of God's existence; but, in them, it is so abundant and com- 
plete as to leave nothing more to be desired — it is as though 
the Creator had written His own autograph upon them for 
the eternal verification of His handiwork. And it is then that 
we fully realize, in contemplating the inanimate works of na- 
ture, the revelation of His Eternity and Omnipotence. Ani- 
mate and inanimate are bound together in one great Bible, 
open and free to all. 

There is no element of novelty in any attempt, in the 
present age, to interrogate nature as to her evidence of an 
intelligent Creator. It was demonstrated in Paley's masterly 
work on Natural Theology, published in 1802, that the array 
of proofs from nature's works, tending to elevate the theo- 
logical dogma of Divine Creation from the position of a mere 
speculative hypothesis to that of an established scientific fact, 



16 INTRODUCTORY 

was overwhelming and apparently conclusive. In Paley's 
treatise, no question as to the origin of Life on the Earth was 
discussed, and no doubt suggested as to the correctness of the 
general belief prevalent at that time that in the beginning 
man and the other animals suddenly made their appearance in 
the world, fully developed and ready for their respective 
careers. Those subjects were not within the province of 
Paley's discussion; and, at the time when his book appeared, 
to have entered upon them would have been unnecessary if 
he concurred in the prevailing belief, and unwise if he op- 
posed it. For, the writings of Tom Paine and the insane 
irreligion of the French Eevolution had both disgusted and 
exasperated the majority of thinking men, and had excited 
against unbelievers and sceptics a degree of opprobrium that 
practically amounted to persecution. In 1809 the appearance 
of Lamarck's work on the progressive development of animal 
life opened immediately a bitter controversy between the 
supporters of the ancient theology and the Lamarckian scep- 
tics, in which the questions whether life on Earth originated 
by chance or by Divine decree, and whether vegetable and ani- 
mal forms suddenly came into existence at the beginning in 
their full maturity or were gradually evolved from lower 
primordial forms, were the principal topics of contention. 
The controversy lasted for fifty years until the Darwinian 
theory of the development of animal and plant forms by 
variation and natural selection supplanted that of Lamarck 
and inherited the right to continue the controversy which he 
had begun. 

The situation today is entirely different from that of 1802. 
Then, it was both unnecessary and impolitic to entangle the 
question of Divine creation with the further and different 
question as to whether the book of Genesis must be received 
as the inspired Word of God ; now, the two questions can no 



INTRODUCTORY 17 

longer be separated. The Darwinian Theory has conquered 
for itself a strong and permanent hold upon the judgment 
even of devout churchmen. The "higher criticism," and a 
profound and conscientious investigation of the channels 
througn which the supposed Mosaic revelation of man's crea- 
tion came down to us, have practically destroyed the authority 
of Genesis, and have remitted it to the category of ancient 
Assyrian myths and folk-lore. In such circumstances, no 
argument from alleged instances of creative design found in 
the works of nature can stand for a moment unless it can 
show, at the same time, that the facts alleged are true and 
cannot be scientifically accounted for on Darwin's Theory of 
Evolution. It was, in part, because Paley, in his great argu- 
ment did not and, in fact, could not, anticipate the objections 
which, fifty-seven years later, Darwin would raise to many of 
his instances of supposed design, that his work failed to 
achieve enduring success. Yet, many of his arguments were, 
when he wrote them, and will forever remain, absolutely un- 
answerable, because the particular instances cited prove the 
existence of creative design, and cannot be explained on any 
other theory. I have taken the liberty to avail myself of cer- 
tain passages from his treatise, where the descriptive matter 
was particularly clear and convincing; and I commend his 
book to all who would be interested in reviewing the great 
accumulation of evidence that he so ably presented on this 
important subject. 

The scope of the present work is quite different from that 
of Paley's treatise. Since 1802, the progress of scientific 
investigation and discovery has been more remarkable than 
at any other period of the world's histor}^ and many things 
have become familiarly known that were not dreamed of in 
Paley's time. These recent discoveries have opened up a vast 
field rich in proofs of Creative intelligence and forethought 



18 INTRODUCTORY 

and entirely beyond the limited range covered by Darwin's 
Theory, which does not even profess to be a general theory of 
evolution. I shall call attention to the modest and wholly- 
reasonable claims of its celebrated author ; and to the signifi- 
cant fact that some of his most learned and competent disci- 
ples have discovered clear evidence of the existence of an un- 
known underlying cause, deeper and more far-reaching than 
the laws of evolution, which must be reckoned with before the 
Darwinian Theory can be regarded as finally established. 
But, with that theory, which undoubtedly explains many, al- 
though not all, of the phenomena of animal and plant devel- 
opment, I have no controversy. If I criticise the reckless and 
unsupported assumptions made by certain of its over-zealous 
advocates, it is not because of any covert opposition to the 
theory itself, but only to prevent it from being misrepresented 
and possibly misunderstood. The labors of Darwin and of 
his true disciples have not in the slightest degree weakened 
the evidence of God's creation and control of the works of 
nature, but, on the contrary, have strongly fortified it, both 
by stripping away irrelevant and incompetent matter, and by 
showing that the remainder, thus purified, is able to stand the 
test of the most searching investigation. 

The same evidence that demonstrates the existence, eter- 
nity and omnipotence of the Creator goes far toward estab- 
lishing the probability of the existence and immortality of the 
human soul; and, when supplemented by other known facts, 
the combined proofs practically place the conclusion beyond a 
reasonable doubt. The discussion of this branch of the sub- 
ject will not be exhaustive, but will be only sufficient to ren- 
der apparent the demonstrative nature of the argument, and 
to indicate the character and sources of the supplementary 
proofs, leaving others to fill them in afterwards from time to 
time as they shall come- to hand. 



INTRODUCTORY 19 

In a work of this kind the main difficulty results from the 
overwhelming abundance of the proofs. It is impossible to 
consider them all, and we are therefore necessarily restricted 
to the selection of a comparatively few exampls from which 
to judge the whole. Brevity of description also dictates the 
selection of examples with which the reader is already famil- 
iar or can easily make himself familiar. Hence, after citing a 
few instances peculiarly illustrative of Creative design in the 
construction of some of the lower animals, I shall draw my 
materials largely from the wonderful contrivances found in 
the human body, with which we are all familiar. Further on, 
we will consider some of the evidences of design in the inani- 
mate works of nature; and lastly, psychology will contribute 
its quota of proofs. I approach the investigation profoundly 
impressed with the conviction that the conclusions which we 
shall reach must be fortified with reasons and evidence so 
strong that neither scientific doubt nor religions bigotry can 
successfully assail them. And it is with entire confidence that 
the views set forth in the following pages will stand this ex- 
treme and final test that I present them to the public. 



CHAPTER II. 

Evolution - and the Darwinian Theory. 

In the following discussion, it will be necessary to refer 
frequently to the great work of Charles Darwin on the Origin 
of Species, first announced in 1858, and published in 1859 ; 
and, incidentally to the writings of some of his most distin- 
guished disciples and commentators. Darwin was not the 
first to announce a theory of evolution. The Greek philoso- 
pher, Anaximander, who was born 611 years before Christ, is 
clearly entitled to that honor. But like most original sug- 
gestions, its appearance was premature; the world was not 
ready to receive it; and it was at first embodied in a crude 
form in which it did not commend itself to the thinking 
mind. The intellectual world turned its attention away to 
the speculations of metaphysical philosophy and the fictions 
of religious dogma, and for twenty-five hundred years, the 
principle lay, abandoned and unnoticed among the mummies 
of ancient thought, like the body of Eameses shut up in its 
forgotten tomb, until finally the nineteenth century broke the 
seals of the crypt and its occupant was discovered to be of 
royal lineage. When, in 1809, Lamarck published in Paris, 
his theory of the progressive development of animal life, the 
French naturalist, like the Creek philosopher, failed to dis- 
criminate between fact and fancy, and undertook to account 
for the origin of life upon the absurd hypothesis of sponta- 
neous generation. His labors, like those of Anaximander, 
failed at first to impress the public as of any great value or 
importance; although they have more recently attracted at- 

20 



EVOLUTION AND DARWINIAN THEORY %\ 

tention by reason of the fact that he anticipated some of the 
ideas afterwards put forth more successfully by Darwin. 

Charles Darwin did not borrow from Anaximander or 
Lamarck his celebrated theory of animal and plant develop- 
ment, but was led to it by his own observation and reflection. 
Like most thinking persons, he had long felt that the account 
given in Genesis of the creation and fall of man was myth- 
ical; and when, during the famous voyage of the Beagle, he 
discovered facts indicating that the present species of animals 
and plants are lineal descendants of earlier and quite different 
species, he began to devote his life to the study and investiga- 
tion of animal and plant development, in order to ascertain, 
if possible, the natural causes which control the transmutation 
of one species into another. To this end, he visited the 
various regions of the globe, both north and south of the 
equator, extending his studies to all forms of life, whether on 
land or in the water, and whether now living or known only 
by their fossil remains. His powers of observation and an- 
alysis were extraordinary, his industry untiring, and his judg- 
ment singularly calm and true. When he was fifty years of 
age, in the full maturity of his powers, he gave to the world 
the results of his investigations, and the conclusions at which 
he had arrived, together with the arguments in support of 
those conclusions, in a book, (The Origin of Species), which 
has profoundly affected human thought on the subject of 
animal and plant development. 

His book set forth no scientific theory of the origin of 
physical life itself, but in the plainest words stated his belief 
that it emanated directly from the Creator, who breathed it 
into a few forms, or perhaps into only one, a lowest form of 
life, from which all subsequent forms were evolved by natural 
processes of development. This theory was irreconcilable with 
the statements of the Book of Genesis, and immediately 



%% EVOLUTION AND DARWINIAN THEORY 

evoked a storm of criticism from leading churchmen on the 
ground that it was heterodox and tended to unsettle the 
foundations of religious belief. In fifty years, the storm has 
spent its force. The views of Darwin have prevailed over 
theological bigotry. The '^higher criticism" has destroyed 
the authority of Genesis as an assumed revelation from God; 
and now there are few even among the clergy who look upon 
it as anything more than a collection of myths venerable 
solely for their antiquity. 

The Darwinian Theory, therefore, now presents itself to 
our consideration merely as a scientific discussion of the 
causes which have contributed to the great diversity of animal 
and plant forms. As a scientific theory, it must stand or fall 
upon the facts that it is able to show. It starts with a living 
physical body, and deals only with the influences which Mr. 
Darwin believed to have enabled that body, in the long course 
of millions of years, and by. the natural processes of growth 
and reproduction alone, to have developed into the countless 
varieties of animal and plant form that now people the land 
and waters of the globe. It does not admit the possibility 
of sudden and great changes of form ; for that would destroy 
the very foundation upon which Mr. Darwin's Theory rests, 
and would justify the belief in creative interference with what 
are called the "laws of nature." It does not acknowledge 
creative interference at any /point along the line of descent, 
but relies entirely upon the slow modification of the ancestral 
form by successive slight variations in its descendants. Thus 
it is not a theory of origins, but a theory of adaptation and 
non-adaptation, and of consequent survival or extinction. 

From a masterly work on Evolution, published in 1883, 
by Mr. Darwin's friend and fellow member of the Eoyal So- 
ciety, Professor Andrew Wilson of Edinburgh, I take the 



EVOLUTION AND DARWINIAN THEORY 23 

liberty to quote an admirable compendium of Darwin's cele- 
brated Theory. Professor Wilson says : x 

"It is an easy matter to summarize, in a series of proposi- 
tions, the chief data upon which Mr. Darwin's theory rests. 
These propositions are as follows : 

Firstly. Every species of animals and plants tends to 
vary to a greater or lesser degree from the specific type. No 
two individuals are alike in every respect; each inherits from 
its parents a general likeness or resemblance to the species, 
whilst it tends at the same time to diverge from the parental 
form. 

Secondly. These variations are capable of being trans- 
mitted to offspring : in other words, by natural laws of inher- 
itance, the variations of the parents appear in the progeny 
along with the natural characters of the species. This much 
is proved in the "artificial selection" by man, for breeding, of 
those animals whose character it is desired should be trans- 
mitted to offspring. 

Thirdly. More animals and plants are produced than can 
possibly survive. Each species tends to increase in geomet- 
rical progression, and all the individuals produced could not 
find food, or even surface-area whereon to dwell. 

Fourthly. The world itself (i. e. the surroundings of 
animals and plants) is continually undergoing alteration and 
change, represented by climatal variations, the rising and 
sinking of land, etc. 

Fifthly. There ensues a "struggle for existence" on the 
part of living beings. Over-population means a struggle for 
food and for other conditions of life, such a consideration be- 
ing really the doctrines of "Parson Malthus" applied to the 
animal and plant worlds at large. Hence it follows that as 

1 Chapters on Evolution (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1883), 
pp. 7, 8. 



24 EVOLUTION AND DARWINIAN THEORY 

some forms will be better adapted (by variation) than others 
to their surroundings, the former will come to the front in 
the struggle. Nature, so to speak, will "select" those indi- 
viduals which will best adapt themselves to their surround- 
ings, and will leave the rest to perish. This is the "survival 
of the fittest." The change of surroundings, already postu- 
lated, will further induce and perpetuate variations in these 
individuals which survive. 

Sixthly. A premium is thus set by nature upon varia- 
tion, inasmuch as the varying and surviving individuals will 
transmit their peculiarities to their offspring. 

Seventhly. Thus "varieties" of a species are first pro- 
duced; the "varieties" becoming permanent, form "races;" 
and the "races," in time, differ so markedly from the original 
species whence they were derived, as to constitute new 
"species." 

Eighthly. Past time has been, to all intents and pur- 
poses, infinite. Hence it is probable that the existent species 
of animals and plants have been evolved (through "natural 
selection," acting through long periods of time) from a few 
primitive and simple forms of life, or possibly, from one such 
form alone." 

These eight propositions constitute, in substance, Dar- 
win's Theory of Evolution. We shall see hereafter how im- 
portant it is to our discussion — important not so much by its 
scope as by its limitations ; not so much by reason of the facts 
which it accounts for, as by reason of those which it does not 
and cannot account for. It serves the purpose of narrowing 
the field of discussion by grouping together and eliminating 
all the points that have been settled and leaving only two re- 
maining for consideration. On those two points — "variation" 
and "natural selection," the very foundations of the Darwin- 



EVOLUTION AND DARWINIAN THEORY 25 

ian Theory — the scientific world, after fifty years of investi- 
gation, has not been able fully to confirm the conclusions 
reached by Darwin. Marked variations sometimes suddenly 
occur, creating new "buds" on the tree of life which cannot be 
accounted for on his Theory ; and "natural selection" does not 
always explain either the persistence or the disappearance of 
organs or forms. 



CHAPTER III. 

Contrivance Proves the Action of Mind, and is the Key 
that Unlocks the Great Secret of the Universe. 

In the course of this work, we shall have frequent occa- 
sion to refer to the subject of contrivance and invention, and 
particularly to those classes of inventions which the laws of 
Great Britain and the United States denominate "combina- 
tions" and "processes." The nature and characteristics of 
the act called invention have been more deeply and ex- 
haustively considered by the courts of England and America 
than have those of any other act performed by the mind of 
man. In both countries, the subject, in almost every con- 
ceivable form, has often been reviewed by the highest courts — 
in England, by the law judges of the House of Lords, and in 
America, by the Supreme Court of the United States — courts 
consisting of men of mature age, selected from the whole na- 
tion by reason of their profound judicial learning and wisdom 
and their extensive experience. In their deliberations con- 
cerning the subject of invention, they are assisted by the ar- 
guments of counsel specially learned in this department of 
knowledge and thought, and by the testimony of scientific 
experts familiar with the subjects under consideration. Each 
judge has at hand all the opinions and reasonings of all his 
predecessors, as well as the opinions of all the lower courts, 
some of which are composed of judges no less renowned for 
ability and learning than the judges of the court of last resort. 
It is evident that the conclusions reached concurrently by 
these hundreds of great minds as to the characteristics and 
proofs of the act called "invention," can be safely adopted by 

26 



CONTRIVANCE. 27 

us as authoritative and final; and I shall have no hesitation 
in relying upon them. Whenever, in the course of this trea- 
tise, reference is made to the act of invention, or contrivance, 
it will be understood that the word is used in its strict legal 
sense as denned by the courts above referred to. 

The unanimous conclusion of these impartial and able 
tribunals, approved by the universal judgment of mankind, 
is, that invention 1 is an act of the intellect, the intelligence, 
the mind ; that it is a creative act, producing, in some cases, a 
thing before unknown, and, in other cases, something before 
known but by this act produced in a new way; and that the 
primary form of the act is that of a mental conception, which 
sometimes flashes upon the consciousness suddenly and unex- 
pectedly, like lightning from a clear sky, and at other times is 
the result of slow and laborious mental effort, reasoning, and 
calculation. This conclusion is confirmed by all inventors. 
They testify unanimously that, in making an invention, they 
are conscious of mental action, and of its production of the 
new idea — even when it is evolved suddenly and unexpect- 
edly. With the "mind's eye," consciousness, they actually 
see the act performed. Thus, whenever and wherever inven- 
tion is found, it proves conclusively the exercise of mind, be- 
cause it can come into existence only through the exercise of 
the mind. 

Let us now take up a few classes of inventions, and con- 
sider the nature of the mental act by which they are produced. 
I will first mention the familiar class in which the invention 
is a "mechanical combination/' or, in legal phraseology, con- 

1 The word ' ' invention ' ' is used in two different senses, to-wit, 
(1) as implying the act of invention, and, (2) as implying the thing 
produced by that act. Thus, we speak of Morse's conception of the 
electric telegraph as an invention, and of the electric telegraph itself 
as an invention. The context will always indicate in which sense the 
word is used. 



28 CONTRIVANCE 

sists in the combination of certain mechanical elements 
(parts) cooperating to produce a desired mechanical result. 
In this class of inventions are included such things as sewing- 
machines, looms, timepieces, pumps, carriage wheels, wind- 
mills, pianos, organs, and thousands of other well-known ma- 
chines and implements. To produce any of these things the 
first inventor had to know its purpose, the kind of materials 
of which it would necessarily be composed, the qualities and 
strength of those materials, the natural laws or principles 
upon which the machine must operate, and a great number 
and variety of other facts of nature or art. Consider, for ex- 
ample, the musical organ: Desiring to produce a new and 
superior musical instrument, the inventor selected the prin- 
ciple of the flute, in preference to that of the harp ; to achieve 
orchestral effects, he multiplied the pipes and varied their 
pitch and quality; with numerous pipes, he had to devise 
means for blowing them mechanically, and this resulted in the 
sub-combination of a bellows, a key-board, and the connecting 
mechanism by which each key should be able to operate a par- 
ticular pipe; to get volume of sound, he had to increase the 
size of the pipes, and form them of some material more 
sonorous than wood; to secure evenness and steadiness of 
tone, he was obliged to combine with his bellows and pipes an 
air-chamber; devices had to be created for reducing or in- 
creasing, at will, the audible loudness of the sounds ; the pipes 
had to be modified so as to receive the air at their ends ; suit- 
able forms of valves had to be designed ; all these things had 
to be thought out, and then carefully coordinated to each 
other. Thus, we see that, in all its parts, and in every step 
in determining the form and construction of each part and 
its relation to every other part, the exercise of thought and 
of the creative power of the intellect was involved. 



CONTKIVANCE. 29 

Or consider, as another example, the electric telegraph. 
Its effective instrumentalities are a galvanic battery or other 
means for exciting an electric current; a circuit wire; an 
electro-magnet with its armature; a spring; a marking-in- 
strument ; a strip of paper ; means for moving the paper strip 
longitudinally; a circuit breaker, or "key," and a signal 
alphabet. These nine devices have no natural relation to each 
other, and all may exist independently without constituting 
a telegraph. But contrivance brings them into definite rela- 
tions with each other, by arranging their positions so that 
they will all cooperate to produce a single joint result. To 
this end, contrivance connects the battery and electro-magnet 
to the circuit-wire, arranges the spring in such position that 
it will normally hold the armature out of contact with the 
poles of the magnet, but when slightly compressed will let it 
come into contact with them; connects the marking-instru- 
ment to the armature; arranges the paper strip so that the 
marking instrument when actuated will produce a mark upon 
it; places the circuit-breaker in the line so that by means of 
it the circuit can be opened or closed at will; and contrives 
an alphabet of dots and dashes such as can be made on the 
paper strip by the marking instrument. The telegraph is now 
complete and operative. 

But it is easy to see that the parts would never have come 
into cooperative relation with each other accidentally or by 
chance. Several of them had to be prepared beforehand, in 
expectation of the use to which they were to be put; all of 
them had to be arranged in anticipation of such intended use. 
Nothing but mind can form an expectation, a purpose, or an 
intention. Wherever, therefore, we find clear evidence of 
contrivance, we find conclusive proof of the existence and 
action of mind. Contrivance is not possible without the oper- 
ation of mind. 



30 CONTEIVANCE. 

When we come to the consideration of those inventions 
which consist in a chemical process adapted to produce a new 
chemical product, the question becomes still more interesting. 
Unlike mechanical movements and combinations, the factors 
which enter into chemical action cannot be seen by the eye: 
for they are atoms and molecules 1 , too minute to be detected 
by the highest powers of the microscope. We are ignorant 
even of their forms, and, unless they have actually been asso- 
ciated before, no one can know how they will behave when 
brought together, nor what qualities will appear in any prod- 
uct resulting from their union. 

If our discussion involved only the processes and products 
of Inorganic Chemistry, no insuperable difficulty would be 
encountered; for the chemical analysis of inorganic com- 
pounds is comparatively simple and its results reliable. Inor- 
ganic Chemistry deals with the solids and the simple, and 
therefore stable, combinations of gaseous elements. All known 
inorganic substances have been analyzed, and their atomic 
composition ascertained; so that we are able, in many cases, 
to create them anew by synthesis of their elements. 

Our discussion, however, will have to do, mainly, with 
Organic Chemistry; and here the difficulties are apparently 
insuperable. All organic substances owe their existence, as 
such, to vital processes; and as we are unable, either in ob- 
servation or experiment, to follow the processes of life, we 
must remain forever ignorant of what they do or how they 
do it. Physical life has a chemistry of its own, whose laws 
and modes of procedure are not within our ken. Analysis 
does not disclose them, and synthesis is powerless without 

1 It is calculated that a molecule is less in diameter than one 
twelve hundred and fifty thousandth of an inch. They are composed 
of atoms at least one thousand times smaller; and these, in their 
turn, are composed of positive and negative electrons more than a 
thousand timei smaller than atoms. 



CONTEIYANCE. 31 

such disclosures. Organic Chemistry has but little to do with 
solids. Its main work is with the complex, and therefore 
correspondingly unstable, combinations of gaseous elements — 
combinations in which the displacement of a single atom is 
almost certain vitally to change the result. With such com- 
binations, synthesis is practically impossible. It does not 
enable us to create a single drop of milk, of oil, of blood, of 
tears, of lymph, of saliva, or gastric juice, of bile, or of pan- 
creatic juice, or a single particle of albumen, of gelatine, of 
bone, or any other organic constituent of the animal body. 
Although we can easily ascertain the kinds, and the quantita- 
tive proportions, of the atoms which compose them as a whole*, 
yet we do not know, and cannot ascertain, the kinds and 
quantitative proportions of the different atoms that compose 
their several molecules, and, until this is known, synthesis is 
impossible. 

There is a third group of inventions to which I will make 
brief reference here, in order that the continuity of the dis- 
cussion may not be interrupted for that purpose further on. 
I refer to those in which the invention consists in a mechan- 
ical combination adapted to cooperate with a chemical prod- 
uct or process to produce a desired result. In such an inven- 
tion its two component divisions, the mechanical and the 
chemical, are so absolutely foreign to each other in their na- 
ture and qualities that, a priori, one could not conceive of 
their coming into cooperative association except in response 
to the command of a controlling intelligence. Yet, in the 
works of Nature, we shall not only repeatedly find such an 
association of mechanical and chemical parts, but we shall 
find, for example, that each has been carefully adapted to the 
other — we shall find that the action of the mechanical part 
would be wholly useless and purposeless unless preceded or 
followed by the action of the chemical part. Each without 



32 CONTRIVANCE. 

the other, would be unintelligible, because useless and worth- 
less — there would be no conceivable reason for the existence 
of either — but with such cooperation, the existence of both is 
fully explained, and the mind intuitively recognizes the pur- 
pose of their creation. When the two cooperating parts are 
clearly not natural growths, but artificial productions, it is 
as impossible for the human mind to doubt the obvious proof 
of intelligent design as to doubt its own existence. But sup- 
pose that upon further examination each of the two parts is 
found to be a separate invention; that the mechanical struc- 
ture is made up of parts which have been carefully fitted to 
cooperate with each other to produce a certain result; that 
the chemical structure is made up of elements which have 
been carefully selected to cooperate with each other to produce 
another certain result ; that the two separate and totally dif- 
ferent results bear such a relation to each other as to show 
that they must have been foreseen and provided for with the 
intent that they should ultimately come together and cooper- 
ate for the production of a third result, which is the object of 
the entire combination, and then try to imagine how any 
proof of design more absolutely conclusive than this could by 
any possibility ever exist ! The effort will be vain — for even 
a mathematical demonstration could have no stronger pro- 
bative force. The sworn testimony of millions of disinter- 
ested and unprejudiced witnesses could add nothing to its 
weight. To refuse to believe it, a person must first renounce 
his own reason. 1 

1 In the experiments of Professor Loeb and others on the artificial 
fertilization of eggs, it has been discovered that the eggs of certain 
low aquatic animals can be fertilized artificially; and the discovery 
has been heralded to the world, in the public prints, as a close 
approximation to, and forerunner of, the supposed approaching dis- 
covery of the origin of life. It is nothing of the kind. To discover 
how a living egg can be fertilized is a very different thing from 
discovering how the egg itself first came to exist, and whence came 



CONTBIVANCE. 33 

It is contrivance that furnishes the key with which to 
unlock the mystery of creation. The universality of con- 
trivance in the works of nature is one of its most striking 
and impressive phenomena. If contrivance were manifest 
only in one department of nature's works, or in but a few 
instances, some persons might not he impressed by it beyond 
the possibility of a reasonable doubt; but the evidence of it is 
literally found everywhere, and in the utmost profusion. A 
whole library of descriptive literature would hardly be suffi- 
cient to convey an adequate idea of its extent. It is simply 
inconceivable that if there was no contrivance in the works of 
nature, they should be found exhibiting innumerable and 
astounding proofs of contrivance everywhere. 

And what has atheism to offer in answer to these over- 
whelming proofs of Creative contrivance? Nothing but the 
absurd conjecture of "spontaneous generation" — a form of 
words which, as explained by Professor Haeckel, its greatest 
living exponent, means that life was originated by the chem- 
ical action of matter upon matter. Haeckel argues that, as 
the minutest form of life is the living call (an invisible $Z 
speck, whose diameter lies somewhere between the one hun- 
dred thousandeth part of an inch and the one hundred and 
twenty-fifth part of an inch) ; and as the cell is composed of 
chemical elements; and as he (Professor Haeckel) cannot 
conceive of a Creator ; therefore, the chemical elements of the 
cell must have come together by chance, and must by their 
inter-action have produced the phenomena which we call life. 
And he feels so sure of this that he stigmatizes all who do 
not believe with him as having "renounced their own 
reason !" 

its life-principle. Professor Loeb starts with an antecedent egg; 
there was no antecedent egg when physical life started — and the 
problem is, how to form the egg. An eternity of fertilization will 
never solve that problem. 



34 CONTRIVANCE. 

He admits the impossibility of either proving or disprov- 
ing his conjecture experimentally. But experimental proof 
is not the only form of proof ; and a theory or guess which is 
incapable of direct experimental proof or disproof may be, 
and often is, indirectly disproved by establishing the existence 
of facts which are plainly inconsistent with it. 

One fact of nature plainly inconsistent with the hypothesis 
of "spontaneous generation" is, the fact that the same iden- 
tical elements and in the same identical proportions, that 
exist in the living cell, may be found existing together with- 
out life. It is a law of nature that chemical action, under 
the same conditions, is invariably the same; hence, if the con- 
currence of certain atoms or molecules, in certain definite pro- 
portions, ever produced life by their chemical action upon 
each other, then their concurrence must always produce life. 
But, as a matter of fact, it does not. It stands, therefore, 
proved that life did not originate by chemical action. 

Only life can produce life. If we sterilize a bowl of 
meat broth and then seal it up hermetically tight, no life will 
ever appear in it, although it contains every chemical element 
necessary to life. In the body of a dog just shot and killed, 
every cell was instinct with life a few minutes ago; every 
chemical element that was in the cell then is in it still; but 
the life is not in it. Something that is not matter, nor the 
function of matter, nor the result of chemical action, has 
gone out of it, never to return. If these things are true, 
"spontaneous generation" cannot be true. 

There is no theory which bridges the chasm between life- 
less matter and the living cell. 

But even if "spontaneous generation" were true, it would 
not account for the plain evidences of creative contrivance. 
"Spontaneous generation" does not produce a lung, or a 
heart, or the wonderful telegraph mechanism of a brain, any 



CONTRIVANCE. 35 

more than it produces a chronometer or a piano. In the crea- 
tion of each of these organs, there was as clear and definite a 
purpose to accomplish, as there is in the construction of a 
pump or a steam engine; and the mechanical difficulties were 
solved with infinite skill. 

The controversy between Eeligion and Atheism for recog- 
nition as the one great Truth of Truths is today, as it always 
has been, a battle over the question whether, on the one 
hand, the universe, with all that it contains, was created by 
an intelligent Creator, or whether, on the other hand, it was 
brought into existence by the action of blind chance. There 
is no middle ground on which to evade the issue; either 
Chance or God must be accepted as the Author of all things. 

Science offers no encouragement to the atheist that his 
views will ultimately prevail. On the contrary, every new 
discovery made by it strengthens the argument against athe- 
ism. It is to science that we owe the knowledge of the struc- 
tures which will be hereinafter cited as examples of Creative 
contrivance. 

With these preliminary observations, I will now enter 
upon the discussion of Nature's revelation of the existence 
of God ; after which, we will take up the question of Nature's 
revelation of the soul of man, and its eternal life in another 
and different sphere of existence. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Contrivance Shown to Exist in the Venomous Snakes, 

and not to be accounted for by darwin's 

Theory of Evolution. 

The mind is that part of our being by which we think, 
reason, contrive, approve, condemn, know, inquire, doubt, be- 
lieve and imagine. Through the power, or faculty, or what- 
ever it be, that we call consciousness, these mental operations 
make themselves directly known to us at the time, and by the 
act, of their occurrence. Thus consciousness is a witness 
whose testimony, without the necessity of corroboration by 
the senses, is, so far as it goes, unimpeachable and conclusive. 

By means of our power of speech, we are able to com- 
municate to others the information which we receive from 
consciousness as to the operation of our own minds ; and they 
are able, in like manner, to impart to us full information of 
the operation of their minds. From a study of the informa- 
tion thus obtained, we arrive at the knowledge that the powers 
or faculties of our mind are common to all minds, and spring 
from the very nature of mind itself. 

In examining the works of nature to ascertain whether 
they furnish evidence of the operation of the mind, we en- 
counter, at the outset, a serious difficulty, arising from the 
fact that nature is unacquainted with the language of man 
and cannot use it for an}' purpose whatever. She has no 
organs of speech by which to inform us whether she thinks, 
reasons, approves, condemns, knows, inquires, doubts, believes, 
or imagines. But there is one faculty of mind, the faculty 
of contrivance, which is able to express itself in works, with- 

36 



CONTRIVANCE IN VENOMOUS SNAKES 37 

out speech; and it is, therefore, to that faculty alone that we 
must confine our attention in the further prosecution of our 
inquiry. Contrivance necessarily implies something con- 
trived; and that something, if afterwards constructed, may 
remain behind for our examination and study. Hence, if we 
can find in the works of nature things that can be accounted 
for on no other theory than that of contrivance, we know to 
ail absolute certainty that those things conclusively demon- 
strate the existence of an intelligent Creator. 

But, in considering the works of nature, we must be care- 
ful to place in the category of contrivances nothing whose ex- 
istence can fairly and fully be accounted for on the theory of 
Evolution; otherwise, like the arguments of Paley and the 
authors of the Bridgewater Treatises, our labors may be in- 
conclusive. 

The question whether the works of nature exhibit clear 
evidence of intelligent contrivance will, therefore, now de- 
mand our attention. 

I select as our first example the venomous serpent. Should 
any one inquire why. the Deity created this class of reptiles, I 
am obliged to reply that I do not know — I am not sufficiently 
acquainted with the ultimate purposes of the Creator to be 
able to hazard any statement on the subject. Perhaps, as 
Gosse conjectures, it was to aid in maintaining the proper 
balance of animal life on the earth by thinning out the vermin 
that would otherwise multiply too rapidly, and to render their 
destruction comparatively painless through the paralyzing 
or stupefying effect of the quick-acting deadly poison. We 
need not even consider the question here, because it is entirely 
beyond the province of this discussion. It is certain that the 
class of venomous serpents was created, probably for some 
sufficient reason, and that it exists, under various forms, on 
all the large land-surfaces of the earth where the climate is 



38 CONTRIVANCE IN VENOMOUS SNAKES 

not frigid throughout the year. It is certain, also, that it 
employs its venom-apparatus as a military weapon, for pur- 
poses of attack and defense. 

That apparatus, in all venomous snakes, is constructed on 
the same general plan. In each side of the reptile's head, and 
in close proximity to the jaw, there is located a flexible bag 
capable of containing a few drops of fluid. The walls of the 
bag are a poison-factory, which secretes from the reptile's 
blood certain chemical elements (which are harmless when 
chemically uncombined in the blood), combines them together 
into an active poison, and filters it into the bag. From the 
bag, a duct extends to the fang, which projects downward 
from the outside edge of the upper jaw. The fang is con- 
structed with a longitudinal passage or canal, extending from 
the delivery-end of the duct to, or nearly to, the sharp end of 
the fang. Around the bag are arranged several powerful 
muscles which are under the control of the snake, and which, 
can, at its will, compress the bag and cause it to squirt the 
poisonous liquid through the fang into the wound made by it. 
For a long time it was generally believed that the fang was 
slightly movable longitudinally, and that, in the act of strik- 
ing, it pressed upward against the bag, causing the latter to 
eject the poison into the wound ; but this belief was fallacious, 
for it was afterwards learned that the snake can, and fre- 
quently does, use the fang for wounding without poisoning. 
In certain snakes, the fangs project so far that their ends 
extend below the jaw when the mouth is closed; and experi- 
ment has shown that, when they are in that position, the 
snake can at will eject poison through them without moving 
its jaws. In the cobra and certain other snakes, the fang is 
not movable independently of the jaw — it is at all times in 
position for striking. 

I beg the reader to pause here and carefully consider this 



CON TBI VANCE IN VENOMOUS SNAKES 39 

astonishing contrivance. Here is a chemical factory, con- 
structed to separate from the animal's blood certain harm- 
less ingredients and combine them together into a deadly 
poison. That they existed in harmless association in the 
blood, and that when combined by chemical action the result 
is a fatal poison, could not have been known to the snake's 
intelligence, nor to any other -intelligence except that of the 
snake's Creator. The materials from which the bag was con- 
structed were brought to the spot by the snake's blood (but 
without his knowledge or control) and converted into a chem- 
ical factory (called by the naturalists a "gland"), the func- 
tion of which was designed to be to secrete from the same 
blood certain other elements and combine them into a poison. 
Merely bringing them together would not answer the purpose, 
for they exist together in the blood without uniting to form 
a poison. This fact, and their subsequent combination into 
a poison, can be rendered intelligible in accordance with the 
laws of chemistry only on one of two possible hypotheses, 
to wit: either (1) there must have existed with them in the 
blood something which prevented their chemical union into a 
poison, but, when rejected by the gland from association with 
them, left them free to unite; or else (2), when in the blood, 
some of them must have contained some element which had 
to be removed, or lacked some element which had to be added, 
to enable them to unite by chemical combination. Whichever 
of these hypotheses be the true one (and it matters not 
which), certain it is that the gland was constructed skilfully 
and intelligently to give it effect, and equally certain it is 
that the mind which planned the construction was familiar 
with the materials that were to be dealt with, and with the 
laws of chemistry, and knew how to make the vital forces 
execute his plans. 

But we have considered only the chemical part of the com- 



40 CONTRIVANCE IN VENOMOUS SNAKES 

bination — let us turn now to the mechanical part. The 
poison-bag and its chemical factory were of no possible use 
alone. To enable them to be used for what we now know 
to have been the purpose of their creation, or for any other 
conceivable purpose, they must be combined with mechanical 
elements. If the poison was to be used outside of the rep- 
tile's own body, there must be- a means by which to deliver it 
from the bag. Accordingly, a discharge-tube was provided, 
and powerful muscles were arranged to compress the flexible 
bag and expel its contents through the tube. At this point 
of development, the bag and its discharge-tube corresponded 
exactly to one of man's well-known inventions — the sprayer 
which ladies employ to spray aromatic fluids upon their face 
and hands; which doctors employ to spray medicinal liquids 
upon diseased surfaces; and which sewing-machine people 
employ to oil their machinery. But the serpent's sprayer was 
intended for no such pacific purpose ; on the contrary, it was 
designed (but not by the serpent himself) for a military 
weapon, and a very deadly one, at that. It was, therefore, 
combined with a tubular fang, capable of not only inflicting 
a wound, but also of furnishing a channel for conveying 
the poison deep into the wound, so as to ensure its destruc- 
tive effect. In certain cobras, the poison is fatal to man 
within five minutes from its injection. In that species of 
serpent, the jaws are provided with a few small teeth for mas- 
ticating purposes arranged farther back in the mouth than 
are the fangs. These teeth have no tubular passage, no sharp 
points, no connection with a poison receptacle, and are totally 
unfitted to perform any function like that of the fangs, while 
the latter are totally unfitted to perform the function of the 
teeth. Indeed, care has been taken to prevent them from 
interfering with the work of the teeth. To that end, they are 
arranged at the outer edge of the upper jaw, out of line with 



CONTRIVANCE IN VENOMOUS SNAKES 41 

the teeth, so that they extend down outside of the lower jaw, 
and thus permit the true teeth to come together. 

In the ratlesnake of Norh America and the terrible fer 
de lance of the Carribean Islands and South America, the 
poison-factor}^, flexible poison-receptacle, discharge-duct and 
muscles for compressing the bag to eject the poison, are con- 
structed and combined as in the cobra ; but the long, tubular, 
sharp-pointed fangs are kinged to the outer edge of the upper 
jaw, and combined with special muscles by which they can be 
turned up on their hinges, out of the way, when not needed 
for immediate use, or depressed for the purpose of putting an 
enemy hors de combat. This construction is, mechanically, in 
the nature of an improvement upon the weapon carried by 
the cobra tribe. When the fangs are turned up, they lie 
within, and nearly concealed by, the folds of the animal's 
upper lip. Note the new sub-combination of hinged fang and 
muscles for raising and lowering it at will which we find here, 
and consider whether it does not indicate the work of an 
intelligent designer ! 

All venomous snakes are constructed either on the plan 
of the cobra or on that of the rattlesnake. The general prin- 
ciple is the same in both. 

It will be interesting and perhaps instructive to compare 
the weapon with which the snake has been armed by nature 
for purposes of attack and defense, and the weapon with 
which man has armed himself for similar purposes. Man's 
weapon, the firearm, like that of the serpent, brings into co- 
operative action the product of a chemical factory and the 
directing power of a mechanical tube. In both cases, a missile 
is to be shot from the assailant into the body of his victim, 
where it is to cause injury or death ; and, in both, the peculiar 
construction of the gun and its missile is due to the widely- 
different materials that the two constructors were obliged to 



42 CONTRIVANCE IN VENOMOUS SNAKES 

use. The stupid and unreasoning snake had not the intelli- 
gence nor the physical organs to create his gun or its pro- 
jectile, and they had to be created for him; man had the 
necessary intelligence and organs, and created them for him- 
self. The mind that planned the snake's contrivance was not 
embodied in a physical form, but knew how to control the 
vital forces of the snake itself and compel them to execute 
his plans; and therefore he availed himself of them to con- 
struct the reptile's gun and its projectile. He could not em- 
ploy a solid projectile, and shoot it from the gun by the force 
of an explosion without destroying the snake itself; therefore 
he employed a liquid projectile and furnished the snake with 
the mechanical means to shoot it from the gun by the exer- 
cise of those means. But here a difficulty was encountered, 
which had to be surmounted by means of another invention — 
the liquid projectile could not make a wound, and was inef- 
fective for its purpose without one. So the constructor em- 
ployed the vital forces of the snake to produce a long, sharp 
and hollow fang, and led the discharge-end of the gun into 
it; and the reptile found itself now able not only to make a 
deep wound, but to drive the venom to the very bottom of it. 
On the other hand, man, in planning and constructing his 
invention, was not limited to the use of a liquid projectile, 
nor to the employment of vital force to drive it from the gun. 
A solid projectile could be employed as the means for making 
the wound; could be large enough to produce a fatal effect 
without the use of poison; and could be shot to a great dis- 
tance by an explosive force acting in the gun itself. Hence, 
he employed his chemical factory to manufacture gunpowder 
instead of venom, and constructed his gun to withstand the 
explosive force of the powder. 

Comparing the inventive intelligence and skill revealed in 
the two weapons, and considering the relative physical limita- 



CONTRIVANCE IN VENOMOUS SNAKES 43 

tions of the two classes of creatures for whose use they were 
designed, I think that every unprejudiced person will agree 
with me in the opinion that superiority cannot be affirmed of 
the human invention. Each was admirably adapted to its 
purpose, and to the being that was to use it; but that found 
in the snake was absolutely perfect in both respects, and that 
of man was not. In the seven hundred and fifty years that 
have elapsed since the date of man's invention, he has greatly 
improved it in respect to the construction of the gun, the form 
and construction of the projectile, and the composition of the 
chemical employed as an explosive. There is no reason to 
believe that there has ever been any improvement, or that 
there is any room for improvment, in the apparatus used by 
the rattlesnake. 

And now, what has Evolution to say about the invention 
employed by the venomous serpents? Evolution replies that 
its so-called "laws" have never pretended to account for the 
original form or forms of animal and plant life, but only for 
their gradual modification into other forms by small but 
cumulative variations; and that the survival of such other 
forms depends upon their superior utility as compared with 
preceding forms. Evolutionists say that the venom-gland 
(the chemical factory) is probably only a modification of a 
pre-existing salivary gland. But when asked how they know 
that there was a pre-existing salivary gland, they are obliged 
to admit that they do not know it — that they assume it as a 
fact and beg us to accept it as an explanation of the exist- 
ence of the venom-gland. By the same kind of reasoning, 
if we asked them to account for the origin of the salivary 
gland, they could say that it is only a modification of the pre- 
existing venom-gland. In short, their assumption of such 
modification in this instance is all guess-work, and not en- 
titled to be called science. They are guilty of a double as- 



44 CONTRIVANCE IN VENOMOUS SNAKES 

sumption — first assuming the supposed pre-existing salivary- 
gland, and then assuming that it accounts for the venom- 
gland. 

Evolution is unable even to attempt to account for the 
long, sharp-pointed fang, or the longitudinal perforation 
through it, or the location of the fang at the outer edge of 
the jaw out of line with the teeth, or the connection of the 
venom-duct to the perforation through the fang, or, in the 
rattlesnake, the hinging of the fang to the jaw, or the crea- 
tion of a set of muscles by which to raise and lower the fang 
at will. These are decisive evidences of intelligent con- 
trivance — as decisive as anything that can be found in the 
whole range of man's inventions. Their cooperative adapta- 
tion clearly explains their purpose. We are not left to infer 
that purpose from what we subsequently know of their actual 
use — the moment we understand their construction and 
adaptation to cooperate with each other, we know their use — 
know it beforehand as well as we know it after seeing them 
used. They give present evidence, and conclusive evidence, 
of their constructor's intention and plan, and of the operation 
of his mind. There is nothing in Evolution that can account 
for them, any more than it can account for the firearm. They 
are the product of thought and skill — and with that conclu- 
sion we will leave them for the present. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Spider and the Bees, Wasps, and Hornets, Evolu- 
tion Again Powerless to Explain. 

The extraordinary mind that thus manifests the fullness 
of its inventive resources and its control over the vital proc- 
esses of animal life, has given us innumerable proofs of both, 
as if to indicate to our comprehension the diversity of his 
powers, and the great interest that, for some reason unknown 
to us, he seems to take in the development of life, even in its 
humblest forms. 

Thus, in the body of the spider there are found several 
inventions, some of which surpass the utmost ingenuity of 
man and have excited his amazement and admiration from 
the time when he first knew of them. Perhaps the most re- 
markable of these are the wonderful spinning apparatus and 
process by which the spider produces the gossamer filaments 
out of which he constructs the web that serves at once as a 
home for himself and a snare for his prey: "Kemember," 
says the naturalist, P. H. Gosse 1 who seems to know the pur- 
poses of the Creator, "that the whole tribe is sent into the 
world to perform one business — they' are commissioned to 
keep down what would otherwise be a 'plague of flies.' They 
are fly-butchers by profession ; and just as our beef and mut- 
ton butchers have their slaughter-house, their steel, their 
knives, their pole-axe, their hooks, so are these little slaugh- 
terers furnished with nets and traps, with caves, with fangs, 
and hooks, and poison-bags, ready for their constant work. 
They have, in fact, nothing else to do: their whole lives are 

1 The Microscope, Ch. XIII. 

45 



46 THE SPiDEK AND THE BEES 

spent in slaughtering — with the exception of rearing fresh 
generations of slaughterers — and I suppose they think, and 
are intended to think, 'of nothing else/ " 

The spider's spinning apparatus is another example of 
nature's combining chemical and mechanical structures to- 
gether into cooperative association for the production of a 
predetermined result — a species of invention that always re- 
quires great ingenuity in planning and extreme skill in con- 
structing. In the particular example here cited, and to be 
described further on, the body of the insect is only a quarter 
of an inch in length; and yet, within the posterior parts of 
this minute form, the chemical factories or glands which 
elaborate from the fluids of the spider's bloodless body the 
materials which are to be spun into a cord are several hun- 
dreds in number, the cord is made up of at least half a dozen 
separately-formed strands, and the complicated machinery 
works in such perfect harmony that the little animal, if unin- 
terrupted, will spin a net sixteen inches in diameter in less 
than three-quarters of an hour! And, in spinning the net, 
the spider produces, with this apparatus, not only the strands 

1 Stars and spiders have certain close connections. Some varieties 
of spiders are cultivated solely for their tine threads, which are used 
in astronomical research. No substitute for the spider's thread has 
yet been found for bisecting the screw of the micrometer used for 
determining the positions and motions of the stars. Not only because 
of the remarkable fineness of the threads are they valuable, but 
because of its durable qualities. Eecently the set of spider lines in 
the micrometer of the transit instrument at the Alleghany observatory 
was examined and found to be in good condition, although they had 
been in service for forty-seven years. These threads withstood 
changes in the temperature so that in measuring sunspots they are 
uninjured, when the heat is so great that the lens of the micrometer 
eye piece is often cracked. The spider lines are only one-fifth to 
one-sixth of a thousandth of an inch in diameter, and make silkworm 
threads seem clumsy in comparison. Each line is made up of thou- 
sands of infinitesimal streams of fluid. In placing these lines in the 
micrometer experts operate with powerful magnifiers. The lines are 
plaeed parallel with each other and two one-thousandths of an inch 
apart. — Chic. Sunday Tribune, Dec. 6, 1908. 



THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 47 

and cords, but two different hinds of cord — one for the cables 
that are to support the net and for the radii that extend from 
the centre to the periphery of the net; and another for the 
spiral or concentric lines that connect the radii and thus com- 
plete the net ! And man, whose boast is, not that he can equal 
this wonderful apparatus, or even approximate it, but that he 
is able to discover that the spider actually possesses and uses 
it, has the presumption to doubt whether intelligent con- 
trivance can be proved from the works of nature! And to 
prate about accounting for it on the theory of Evolution, when 
the laws of Evolution are utterly powerless to explain the 
origin of even one of the hundreds of glands employed in the 
apparatus ! Evolution, as we have already seen, has its limita- 
tions, and they confine the field of its explanations within very 
narrow boundaries. It accounts for new structures only when 
they can be shown to have been brought into existence by 
the slow and gradual variation of antecedent structures. 

I borrow from the interesting work of P. H. Gosse on the 
Microscope, the following description of the spider's spinning 
apparatus. After referring to the many varieties in the form 
of spider's webs, he says : 

"The silk with which these various fabrics are constructed 
is a thick, viscous, transparent liquid, much like a solution of 
gum arabic, which hardens quickly on exposure to air, but can 
meanwhile be drawn out into thread. So far, it agrees with 
the silk of the silkworm and other caterpillars; but the ap- 
paratus by which it is secreted, and that by which it is spun, 
are both far more complex and elaborate than those of the 
latter. Generally speaking, there are three pairs of spinner- 
ets, or external organs, through which the threads are pro- 
duced, but in some few cases there are only two pairs, and in 
others, as the Garden Spiders (Epeira), the hindmost pair 
seem to be united into a single spinneret. These are always 



48 THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 

situated at the hinder extremity of the body, and I will show 
them to you presently. First, however, I will describe the 
internal apparatus — the source of the threads. 

"The glands which secrete the gummy fluid are placed in 
the midst of the abdominal viscera, and in some instances — 
as in the female Epeira fasciata, a species which makes a re- 
markably large web — they occupy about a quarter of the 
whole bulk of the abdomen. About five different kinds of 
these glands may be distinguished, though they are not all 
present in every species. The Epeirae, however, present 
them all. 

"In this genus there are : 1. Small, pear-shaped bags, as- 
sociated in groups of hundreds, and leading off by short tubes, 
which are interlaced in a screw-like manner, and open in all 
the spinnerets. 2. Six long twisted tubes, which gradually 
enlarge into as many pouches, and then are each protracted 
into a very long duct which forms a double loop. 3. Three 
pairs of glandular tubes, similar to the preceding, but which 
open externally through short ducts. 4. Two groups of much 
branched sacs, whose long ducts run to the upper pair of spin- 
nerets. 5. Two slightly branched blind-tubes, which ter- 
minate by two short ducts in the middle pair of spinnerets. 

"It is not easy to examine the spinnerets with a micro- 
scope, so as to make out their structure. If we confine the 
spider in a glass cell, it is so restless that the least shock or 
change of position will cause it to move to and fro; and, be- 
sides, when it does become quiescent, the spinnerets are closed 
in towards each other, so that we cannot see their extremities. 
By selecting a specimen, however, recently killed, such as this 
Clubiona, we may discern sufficient to enable us to compre- 
hend their construction. 

"Looking, then, at the abdomen from beneath, we see the 
three pairs of spinnerets clustered together close to the ex- 



THE SPIDEK AND THE BEES 49 

tremity. The pair most forward are shaped somewhat like 
barrels, whose free ends bend over towards each other. They 
are covered with stiff black hairs, and just within the margin 
of what may be called the head of the barrel (for it is cut off 
horizontally, with a sharp rim) there is a circle of very close- 
set, stiff, whitish bristles, which arch inwards. The whole flat 
surface of the 'head/ within this circle of bristles, is beset 
with very minute horny tubes, standing erect, which are the 
outlets of the silk-ducts, that belong to this pair. 

"Behind this first pair are seen the middle pair, almost 
concealed, however, from their shortness and smallness, and 
from the approximation of the first and third pairs. We can 
discern that they are more teat-like than the preceding, ter- 
minating in a minute wart, which is prolonged into a horny 
tube. The whole teat is set with similar tubes, which are 
larger and longer than those of the first pair. Finally, the 
third pair resemble palpi, for each consists of two lengthened 
joints and they are bluntly pointed. The spinning tubes in 
these are limited, as it appears to me, to one or two at the 
extreme end of each spinneret, the whole surface besides being 
covered with the ordinary long bristles. Strictly speaking, 
however, they are three-jointed, for all the spinnerets spring 
from wart-like sockets, which may be considered as basal 
joints; and as the circlet of bristles in the first pair doubt- 
less indicated a short joint, sunken as it were within the pre- 
ceding, this pair is likewise three-jointed; the middle pair 
appears to be but two-jointed. 

"The minute horny tubes are themselves composed of two 
joints, the basal one thick, the terminal one very slender, and 
perforated with an orifice of excessive tenuity ; through which 
the gum oozes at the will of the animal, as an equally atten- 
uated thread. On our Cluliona, the number of tubes in all 



50 THE SPIDEK AND THE BEES 

the spinnerets is about three hundred; but in the Garden 
Spider (Epeira) they exceed a thousand. 

"This remarkable multiplicity of the strands with which 
the apparently simple and certainly slender thread of the 
Spider is composed, has attracted the attention of those phi- 
losophers who seek to discover the reasons of the phenomena 
they see in nature. The explanation was first suggested, I 
believe, by Mr. Rennie, 1 but it has been amplified with much 
force by Professor Jones, in the following words: 

" 'A very obvious reflection will here naturally suggest 
itself, in connexion with this beautiful machinery; why, in 
the case of the Spider, it has been found necessary to provide 
a rope of such complex structure, when in so many Insects a 
simple, undivided thread, drawn from the orifice of a single 
tube, like the thread of the Silkworm, for instance, was suffi- 
cient for all required purposes. And here, as in every other 
case, it will be found, on consideration, that a complicated 
apparatus has been substituted for a simple one only to meet 
the requirements of strict necessity. The slow-moving Cater- 
pillar, as it leisurely produces its silken cord, gives time 
enough for the fluid of which it is formed to harden by de- 
grees into a tenacious filament, and it is allowed to issue by 
instalments from the end of the labial pipe ; but the habits of 
the Spider require a different mode of proceeding, as its line 
must be instantly converted from a fluid into a strong rope 
or it would be of no use for the purposes it is intended to 
fulfil. Let a fly, for example, become entangled in the 
meshes of a Spider's web no time is to be lost; the struggling 
victim, by every effort to escape, is tearing the meshes that 
entangle it, and would soon succeed in breaking loose did not 
its lurking destroyer at once rush out to complete the cap- 

1 Insect Architecture, 337. 



THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 51 

ture and save its net, spun with so much labor, from rain. 
With the rapidity of thought, it darts upon its prey, and 
before the eye of the spectator can comprehend the manoeuvre, 
the poor fly is swathed in silken bands, until it is as in- 
capable of moving as an Egyptian mummy. To allow the 
Spider to perform such a feat as this, its thread must evi- 
dently be instantaneously placed at its disposal, which would 
have been impossible had it been a single cord, but being sub- 
divided into numerous filaments, so attenuated as we have 
seen them to be, there is no time lost in the drying ; and from 
being fluid they are at once converted into a solid rope, ready 
for immediate service." 1 

"No doubt you have often admired the exquisite regular- 
ity of those Spiders' webs which are called geometrical; that 
of our abundant Garden Spider, for instance. You have ob- 
served the cables which stretch from wall to wall, or from 
bush to bush, in various directions, to form the scaffolding, 
on which the net is afterwards to be woven; then you have 
marked the straight lines, like the spokes of a wheel, that 
radiate from the centre to various points of these outward 
cables, and finally the spiral thread that circles again and 
again round the radii, till an exquisite net of many meshes 
is formed. 

"But possibly you are not aware that these lines are 
formed of two quite distinct sorts of silk. It has been shown 
that the cables and radii are perfectly unadhesive, while the 
concentric or spiral circles are extremely viscid. Now the 
microscope, or a powerful lens, will reveal the cause of this 
difference; the threads of the cables and radii are perfectly 
simple, while the spiral threads are closely studded with 
minute globules of fluid, like drops of dew, which, from the 

1 Nat. Hist, of Anim. II, 339. 



52 THE SPIDEK AND THE BEES 

elasticity of the thread, are easily separated from each other. 
These are globules of viscid gum, as is easily proved by touch- 
ing one or two with the finger, to which they will instantly 
adhere; or by throwing a little fine dust over the net, when 
the spirals will be found clogged with dirt, while the radii 
and cables remain unsoiled. It is these viscid threads alone 
that have the power of detaining the vagrant flies which acci- 
dentally touch the net. 

"The diversity of the secreting organs already alluded to, 
as well as in the spinnerets, is no doubt connected with this 
difference in the character of the silk; and it is worthy of 
remark that this diversity is greatest in such Spiders, as the 
Epeirce, which spin geometric nets. 

"Immense is the number of globules of viscidity that stud 
the spiral circles of these nets. Mr. Blackwall, the able and 
learned historian of the tribe, has estimated that as many as 
87,360 such pearly drops occurred in a net of average di- 
mensions, and 120,000 in a net of fourteen or sixteen inches 
diameter; and yet a Spider will construct such a net, if un- 
interrupted, in less than three-quarters of an hour/' 

Man has never yet discovered how to manufacture silk 
nets by gluing the cross-threads to the longitudinal threads. 
In order to do it practically, he must have a better glue than 
any now at his command. If the spider could speak, she 
could not tell him how to prepare it, for she does not know. 
Only the engineer who constructed her factories is in pos- 
session of the secret. 

It will be noticed that the glue which is to fasten the 
concentric cords to the radial cords of the net is supplied to 
the concentric cords in minute globures separated from each 
other by short spaces. It must, therefore, be elaborated by 
a set of glands entirely distinct from those which supply the 
materials for the cords themselves — glands created for the 



THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 53 

special purpose of making this particular kind of glue, and 
provided with some unknown and unprecedented mechanism 
for spacing the globules properly apart. Think of it! — 
mechanism for forming the strong cables that constitute the 
spokes or radii of the net — other mechanism for constructing 
the lighter cords that bridge the spaces between the radii — a 
new method of securing the cords and radii firmly together at 
their crossings — a new material for such fastenings — and a 
machine specially invented and constructed for making and 
applying this new material ! Can the history of man's inven- 
tions furnish a parallel to this ! 

But, after the net has been constructed, the little animal 
has to travel over it frequently, and sometimes in a great 
hurry to secure a fly or escape an enemy. It is necessary 
that she be very sure-footed, for the cables and cords are "as 
slender as a spider's web/' and she might lose her prey or her 
life if she should make a misstep. Some benevolent power 
has foreseen this, and carefully provided against it. I quote 
once more from Mr. Gosse : 

"Scarcely less admirable is the ease and precision with 
which the little architect traverses her perpendicular or diag- 
onal web of rope; a skill which leaves that of the mariner 
who leaps from shroud to backstay in a ship's rigging im- 
measurably behind. To understand it, however, in some 
measure, look at this last joint of one of the feet of our well- 
used Clubiona. It is a cylindrical rod, ending in a rounded 
point; every part of its surface is studded with stiff, rather 
long, horny bristles, which, springing from the side arch in- 
ward towards the point. Now this array of spines effectually 
prevents a false step, for if any part of the leg, which is suffi- 
ciently long, only strikes the thread, the latter is certain to 
slip in between the bristles, and thus to catch the leg. But 
more precision than this is requisite ; especially when we ob- 



54 THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 

serve with what delicacy of touch the hinder feet are often 
used to guide the thread as it issues from the spinnerets, and 
particularly with what lightning-like rapidity the larger net- 
weavers will, with the assistance of these feet, roll a dense 
web of silk around the body of a helpless fly, swathing it up, 
like an Egyptian mummy, in many folds of cloth, in an 
instant. 

"Look, then, at the extreme tip of the ultimate joint. 
Two stout hooked claws of dark horny texture are seen pro- 
ceeding from it side by side, and a third of smaller size, and 
more delicate in appearance, is placed between them, and on 
a lower level. The former have their under or concave sur- 
face set with teeth (eighteen on each in this example), very 
regularly cut, like those of a comb, which are minute at the 
commencement of the series near the base of the claw, and 
gradually increase in length to the tip. These are doubtless 
sensible organs of touch, feeling and catching the thread ; and 
they, moreover, act as combs, cleansing their limbs, and 
probably their webs, from the particles of dust and other 
extraneous matter which are continually cleaving to them." 

Many spiders are further provided with two formidable 
weapons of attack. They consist of curved sharp-pointed 
piercing instruments perforated from their tip to their base, 
and each hinged to the front end of a relatively stout organ 
that projects forward from the spider's head. A duct ex- 
tends from the instrument back into the organ to which it 
is hinged, and there connects to a poison-apparatus similar 
in form to that of the rattlesnake and the cobra. The front 
end of the organ which thus supports the piercing-blade is 
furrowed laterally from the hinge; and the blade, when not 
in use, shuts into the furrow just as the blade of a pocket- 
knife shuts into its handle. When needed for use, the animal 
can open the blade at will, much more quickly and con- 



THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 



55 



veniently than the boy can open his jack-knife. No doubt 
the jack-knife was considered an ingenious invention when it 
was first made; but the spider was in possession of it long 
before man. His two poison-bearing jack-knives are not con- 
nected with the mouth, as are the serpent's fangs, but are in- 
dependent instruments, arranged at the points where an in- 
sect's antenna) or "feelers" are usually arranged. The chem- 
ical-factories of the spider, in their internal construction, 
differ as greatly from those of the snake as does a soap-fac- 
tory from a sugar-refinery; for those of the spider produce 
an acid, whereas those of the snake produce an alkaline prod- 
uct — each deadly, but radically different materials. It is 
worthy of note that, in both classes of animals, the poison, 
when once in the bag, can escape only through the duct, and 
at the animal's will ; so that there is no danger of its injuring 
its proprietor. 




Fig. 1. Top view of spider's poison-apparatus, greatly magnified. Hinged 
fangs on the right. Venom-bags and duets shown by dotted lines. 



While we are on the subject of chemical-factories com- 
bined with mechanical instrumentalities in cooperative asso- 
ciation with them, and therefore furnishing most decisive 
evidence of intelligent contrivance or invention, I will call 
attention to another class of animals in whose possession are 



56 THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 

found weapons of attack and defense having a general like- 
ness to those of the snakes and spiders, but with significant 
differences of construction and arrangement, suited to the 
animal's different nature and necessities. Bees are accus- 
tomed to search for their food by crawling, head foremost, 
into the recesses of honey-bearing flowers, and thus, while 
pursuing their peaceful and honorable business, are exposed 
to injuries from behind. Accordingly, nature arranged their 
defensive armament to repel assaults from the rear; remind- 
ing us of the stories we used to read, in our boyhood days, 
about rich merchant-vessels, armed with "stern-chasers," and 
ready to deal death and destruction to the dreaded pirates 
closing upon them in the exciting chase. The bee's weapon 
is in the nature of a lance, which it can thrust backwards 
against the foe, to compel him to keep at a respectful dis- 
tance; and, to render the instrument more effective and 
respect-inspiring, it is perforated longitudinally and con- 
nected to a poison bag containing a poison which is painful 
and ordinarily not dangerous to man. I have had great re- 
spect for the bee ever since I was a boy. Bees, however, never 
assail man, except when injured or apprehensive of injury. 
Hornets and wasps, armed with the same weapons, are more 
nervous and irritable than bees, and are generally avoided by 
those who are so unfortunate as to have had business rela- 
tions with them. 

Now, if the several forms of apparatus found in the pos- 
session of the serpents, the spiders, and the bees, wasps and 
hornets, do not prove the existence of mind in its author, 
then the magazine rifle, the Maxim gun, and the spinning- 
jenny, do not prove the existence of mind in their several 
inventors. The problems to be solved were far more difficult 
in the former than in the latter, and were solved by far more 
wonderful and perfect contrivances. 



THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 57 

Tt may be well to pause here for a few moments, and con- 
sider how Evolution, as explained by Darwin and his great 
apostles, Huxley, Haeckel and Spencer, would be obliged to 
proceed in order to account for the existence of the mechan- 
isms of the serpent, the spider, and the bees, wasps and hor- 
nets, just described. I will select the rattlesnake's mechanism 
as typical of the offensive and defensive devices of the ani- 
mals referred to. 

To produce the rattlesnake's mechanism in accordance 
with the Theory of Evolution, the process would necessarily 
be as follows : If there were no pre-existing bag and gland 
in the snake's head to begin with, that fact would end the 
matter at the outset; for Darwin's theory does not pretend 
to account for the creation of new organs, but only for the 
modification of old ones. One of its most fundamental pos- 
tulates is, that "natura non facit saltum,," 1 but brings new 
forms into existence by gradually altering antecedent forms. 
Hence, self-styled evolutionists assume that the poison-gland 
and bag represent the old salivary gland and duct, altered in 
character and function by nature's method of slow variation. 
If it were known that snakes had a salivary gland and duct 
before they had a poison gland and bag, there would be some 
plausibility, in the evolutionary hypothesis; but nothing is 
known about the primitive snakes, except that their fossilized 
skeletons first appear among the deposits of the Eocene 
period, millions of years ago, and that they were then desti- 
tute of fangs — from which fact it is inferred that they were 
non-poisonous. Glands and ducts, being soft, fleshy parts, 
decay too quickly to become fossilized ; so that the world will 
never know whether the early snakes had salivary glands and 
ducts or not. The assumption that the snake's poison-gland 

1 Nature does not make a jump. 



58 THE SPIDEE AND THE BEES 

is a modified salivary gland must, therefore, be rejected : 
unscientific and unwarranted. 

But, even if we should provisionally accept it as possib' 
true, it would not account for the fang, nor for the long 
tudinal perforation of the fang. The evidence now of recoi 
gives no warrant for assuming that these, or either of then 
existed prior to the poison apparatus, but only for the coi 
trarv. Besides, salivary glands do not discharge their sali\ 
through perforated fangs, nor through perforated teeth. Bi 
here, the so-called evolutionist, having already made one in 
warrantable assumption, now proceeds to make anothe 
namely, that the fang is merely a modified tooth, and tl 
longitudinal perforation merely a modification in the stru 
ture of that particular tooth. And thus we are led from a 
sumption to assumption, from guess to guess, without an 
evidence whatever upon which to base these guesses. Let i 
examine them, seriatim, to see whether an argument supporte 
by them alone deserves the acceptance of thinking men. Tl 
first guess is, as we have seen, that there pre-existed in tl 
snake's head a gland for secreting a digestive fluid, and 
duct for conveying that fluid from the gland to the moutl 
the second guess is, that, for some unaccountable reason, c 
for no reason at all, nature, having produced these glanc 
(which have always worked well in other animals), becan 
dissatisfied with them in the snake's head, and proceeded 1 
vary their construction so that they should henceforth pr( 
duce a poison instead of a digestive fluid; and left the ui 
fortunate snake to get along as well as he could without h 
accustomed saliva; the third guess is, that she then went i 
work upon the ducts which had conveyed the saliva free! 
from the glands to the mouth, and transformed them inl 
hags which should hold the poison, not allowing it to ent< 
the mouth ; the fourth guess is, that she then altered tl 



THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 59 

arrangement of the teeth of ihe upper jaw, moving the two 
front ones out of line with the others, so as to bring them at 
the outer edge of the jaw ; the fifth guess is, that, having got 
these two teeth at the outer edge of the jaw, so that they 
should not interfere with the closing of the jaws together, 
she developed them into long, sharp-pointed fangs totally un- 
like the other teeth; the sixth guess is, that she then bored 
a small hole through each of them, from the apex to the base ; 
the seventh guess is, that she extended the mouth of the two 
bags to the bases of the fangs, and connected them to the per- 
forations which she had made; the eighth guess is, that she 
built up strong muscles around the bag, and placed them un- 
der command of the snake's will, so that by contracting them, 
he could squirt the poison through the fangs whenever in- 
clined to do so; the ninth guess is, that, in the rattlesnake, 
she became dissatisfied with the operation of the fangs, and 
hinged them to the jaw so that they could be turned upward 
and downward on the hinge as a pivot; and the tenth guess 
is, that, having hinged the fangs to the jaw, she constructed 
and arranged muscles for the special purpose of turning the 
fangs up and down at will, and nerves to control the muscles. 
There were no such muscles or nerves before the hinge ap- 
peared — how came they to be formed when, or after, the 
hinge was formed ? 

Now this is a pretty formidable array of conjectures upon 
which to build a "scientific" theory! And yet, all of them 
are necessary — none can be spared without destroying the 
theory. What do you think of it — do you call it science or 
guess-work ? 

Let us apply the same reasoning to the case of the spider, 
and see what will come of it — surely, if it is competent to ex- 
plain the origin of the snake's poison-apparatus, it ought to 
prove equally competent to account for that of the spider, so 



60 THE SPIDEK AND THE BEES 

very similar to the ■ snake's. But strange to say, it utterly 
fails when we attempt to apply it to the spider; for we find 
that the spider had no salivary gland to start with, no teeth 
to be altered into fangs, and no jaws. We are then at a loss 
to know how to proceed; but the pseudo-scientist is not — he 
immediately gives birth to another and different theory, to 
account for the spider's apparatus — he observes that other in- 
sects (not spiders) have antennas or "feelers/' growing out of 
their faces at about the same place where the spider's fangs 
are found. That is enough for him — he forthwith proceeds 
to assume again. This time, he assumes that the fangs and 
poison-bags are modified antenna? ! He does not even attempt 
to account for the jack-knife arrangement by which the 
spider shuts up his fangs out of the way when not in use. 

Well, then, let us try the "snake-theory" on the bee, and 
see how it works there. At last, our pseudo-scientist is non- 
plussed. For the poison-apparatus is located in the gable-end 
of the bee, where there is neither salivary gland, nor fangs, 
nor antennas, nor anything else to modify; but the bee's 
poison-apparatus is even neater and more perfect than those 
of the snakes and spiders, and works just as well. Moreover, 
the exercise of intelligence is clearly discernible in locating 
it at that part of the bee's body which is exposed to assault 
while his head and legs are hidden in the recesses where he is 
obliged to search for his food and building-materials. 

In view of the total failure of Darwin's theory to give any 
reasonable or even plausible explanation of the origin of the 
poison-apparatus, it is hopeless to ask it to explain the origin 
of the spider's spinning-mill. The questions: whence came 
knowledge of the chemical composition employed as a mate- 
rial from which to form the strands ; or knowledge how to 
construct a gland to make that composition ; or knowledge of 
the practical advantages of constructing the cords and cables 



THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 61 

from a large number of strands; or, when constructing the 
glands, the prevision to foresee that there will have to be two 
kinds of cords, one for the cables and radii and another and 
different one for the concentric connecting-cords; or the pre- 
vision to foresee that the connecting-cords and radii will have 
to be fastened together at the points where they cross ; or the 
inventive wit to conceive of fastening them together with 
glue; or knowledge how to construct the machinery for spa- 
cing the glue; are entirely beyond the power of Evolution to 
answer. Even man, today, with his almost infinite intelli- 
gence, can claim only to know the advantages of constructing 
the cords and cables from a large number of separate strands, 
as he constructs the cables of suspension-bridges, and of fast- 
ening the intersecting cords and cables together where they 
cross each other, and as he fastens the intersecting strands of 
his fish-nets. The other questions can be answered only by 
the infinite Mind which the theist intelligently worships un- 
der the name of God, and the atheistic materialist unwit- 
tingly worships under the name of Nature. I will not ask 
Evolution to explain the self-evident proofs of design in the 
structures hereinabove referred to; she would indignantly 
reply that she has nothing to do with design, except to ex- 
purgate the false evidence from the true, and that she leaves 
to the theologian all questions of that nature. 

We see, by this time, that Evolution has its limitations — ■ 
it cannot account for everything, nor the half of everything. 
It can explain the gradual alteration of a foot into a hand, 
of a fin into a wing (although not without much assuming), 
and of a soft paw into a hoof; but there must always be 
some antecedent thing to start with ; evolution never creates, 
but only modifies. 

2. — As we have seen, the snakes, spiders and bees are pro- 
vided with poison-factories, poison-receptacles, sharp instru- 



62 THE SPIDER AND THE BEES 

ments for making a wound, and means for shooting the 
poisonous liquid into the wound; and the construction and 
combination of these instrumentalities are essentially the 
same in them all. But the animals thus armed are not the 
same, nor even in any way related to each other. Snake, 
spider and bee must, therefore, have obtained their armament 
independently of each other; for there was no common an- 
cestor from whom to inherit it. From whom could they have 
obtained the general plan of the apparatus, if not from the 
Author of Nature ? Who but He was competent to originate 
the plan, or had the power to put it in operation simulta- 
neously in animal structures so radically different as those 
of snakes, spiders, and bees? No hypothesis of fortuitous 
"variations" can account for its origin in all three of these 
classes of animals; no doctrine of "heredity" can explain it, 
either on the Darwinian hypothesis of "pangenesis" or the 
Mendelian hypothesis of "mutations;" no theory of "natural 
selection" can tell us why it did not result in the extermina- 
tion, rather than the survival, of the ratlesnake. 

3. — Thus, whatever may have caused the origin of this 
particular apparatus in these three classes of animals, it is 
clear that "evolution" sheds no light upon the subject. Some- 
thing deeper and more far-reaching than evolution was in- 
volved in it. If that something, in embodying its conception, 
did not find any pre-existing structure to modify, it could 
create. If teeth were not there to make use of, it could use 
antennae equally well; if neither teeth nor antenna? were 
available, it could get along without them; if the animal's 
head were, in consequence of its position, not adapted to ren- 
der the use of the new poison-apparatus serviceable, it could 
take the animal's tail. All things were alike at its command. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Eye. 

Let us select the human eye as our next example — not 
because it displays greater inventive intelligence, ingenuity 
and skill than the other examples which are to follow (for 
it does not), but because in its scientific principle it closely 
parallels one of man's inventions, the refracting telescope, so 
that the latter can be used as a standard by which to estimate 
the degree of inventive skill manifested in the eye, and be- 
cause it is familiar to everybody, and is situated conveniently 
for purposes of examination and comparison. 

The refracting telescope utilizes the scientific principle 
or fact that a ray of light, passing through a transparent 
thin medium such as air, and then striking at an angle the 
surface of a denser transparent medium, for example, water 
or glass, is refracted or bent out of its course by the surface 
of the denser medium, to an extent proportionate to the angle 
of incidence. To utilize that principle, the refracting tele- 
scope is constituted to receive upon a large circular glass sur- 
face (the "object-glass") the rays of light coming through 
the air, and to bend towards a pre-determined point (the 
focal point) such of them as otherwise would not strike that 
point. This is accomplished by making the surface of the 
glass increasingly convex or lenticular, so that the rays will 
be concentrated on the focal point. The distance of the focal 
point from the centre of the glass lens is inversely propor- 
tionate, of course, to the convexity of the lens. The rays of 
light, thus concentrated, are to pass through the pupil of the 

63 



64 THE EYE 

observer's eye and fall upon the retina; and, as it would be 
difficult for him to hold his eye in such a position that the 
retina would come exactly at the focal point of the telescope, 
the latter is provided with a small lens (the "eye-piece"), 
arranged slightly forward of the focal point, and adapted to 
refract the converging lines into parallel lines from the eye- 
piece backwards toward the eye. The object-glass, especially 
near its periphery, would, by its increasing convexity, be lia- 
ble to decompose and color the light, as in certain opera- 
glasses, were not some means employed to counteract the ten- 
dency. Therefore, to render the telescope achromatic, the 
lens is made by a combination of two substances such as 
crown and flint glass, having dissimilar refractive powers, 
arranging them so that the colored or chromatic aberration of 
light passing through a single lens is corrected, and the light 
passes undecomposed and therefore colorless. The object- 
glass and eye-piece are supported in a tube, which excludes 
all light-rays except those coming from the object to be ob- 
served or its immediate vicinity. The structure demonstrates 
both the inventive ability of its author and his profound 
knowledge of the laws of light. 

But the human eye exhibits incomparably greater inven- 
tive ability and constructive skill than the telescope. The 
principal part (speaking quantitatively) is a compound lens, 
operating on the same general principle as that of the tele- 
scope, and enclosed within the contour of the eye formed by 
the cornea, sclerotic coat, and choroid. Of the three members 
composing the compound lens, one, the aqueous humor, a 
thin watery fluid, is arranged immediately back of the trans- 
parent cornea; the next, the crystalline lens, a transparent 
lenticular body, is arranged behind the aqueous humor; and 
the third, the vitreous humor, a transparent jelly-like sub- 
stance, occupies the entire space behind the crystalline lens. 



THE EYE 



65 



The iris, a beautifully-colored elastic curtain, having a cir- 
cular central aperture called the pupil, is suspended between 
the aqueous humor and the crystalline lens by means of mus- 
cles which are capable of automatically contracting and re- 
laxing to adjust the size of the pupil to the intensity of the 
light. The front end of the optic nerve is spread out, like 
the frayed end of a string, over the rear inner wall of the eye- 



Canal of Schlemm. 




Sclerotic coat. 



___ Canal for 
central artery. 



Nerve sheath. — ^JlffP^** Optic nerve. 

Fig. 2. Section through the eye, magnified. 



ball, forming a network called the retina, exceedingly sensi- 
tive to the action of light. 

Paley, in Chapter III of his "Natural Theology/' tells 
the story of the human eye with such admirable clearness that 
I take the liberty of borrowing a portion of his description. 
He says : 



66 THE EYE 

"The difference between an animal and an automatic 
statue consists in this, — that, in the animal, we trace the 
mechanism to a certain point, and then we are stopped; 
either the mechanism becoming too subtle for our discern- 
ment, or something else beside the known laws of mechanism 
taking place: whereas, in the automaton, for the compara- 
tively few motions of which it is capable, we trace the mech- 
anism throughout. But, up to the limit, the reasoning is as 
clear and certain in the one case as in the other. In the ex- 
ample before us, it is a matter of certainly, because it is a 
matter which experience and observation demonstrate, that 
the formation of an image at the bottom of the eye is neces- 
sary to perfect vision. The image itself can be shown. What- 
ever affects the distinctness of the image affects the distinct- 
ness of vision. The formation then of such an image being 
necessary (no matter how) to the sense of sight, and to the 
exercise of that sense, the apparatus by which it is formed 
is constructed and put together, not only with infinitely more 
art, but upon the self-same principles of art as in the tele- 
scope or the camera obscura. The perception arising from 
the image may be laid out of the question; for the produc- 
tion of the image, these are instruments of the same kind. 
The end is the same, the means are the same. The purpose 
in both is alike; the contrivance for accomplishing that pur- 
pose is in both alike. The lenses of the telescope, and the 
humors of the eye, bear a resemblance to one another, in their 
figure, their position, and in their power over the rays of 
light, viz. : in bringing each pencil to a point at the right 
distance from the lens ; namely, in the eye, at the exact place 
where the membrane is spread to receive it. How is it possi- 
ble, under circumstances of such close affinity, and under the 
operation of equal evidence, to exclude contrivance from the 
one; yet acknowledge the proof of contrivance having been 



THE EYE 67 

employed, as the plainest and clearest of all propositions, in 
the other? 

"The resemblance between the two cases is still more accu- 
rate, and obtains in more points than we have yet represented, 
or than we are, on the first view of the subject, aware of. In 
dioptric telescopes there is an imperfection of this nature. 
Pencils of light, in passing through glass lenses, are sepa- 
rated into different colors, thereby tinging the object, espe- 
cially the edges of it, as if it were viewed through a prism. 
To correct this inconvenience had been long a desideratum 
in the art. At last it came to the mind of a sagacious opti- 
cian to inquire how this matter was managed in the eye ; in 
which there was exactly the same difficulty to contend with 
as in the telescope. His observation taught him that in the 
eye the evil was cured by combining lenses composed of differ- 
ent substances, i. e., of substances which possessed different 
refracting powers. Our artist borrowed thence his hint, and 
produced a correction of the defect by imitating, in glasses 
made from different materials, the effects of the different 
humors through which the rays of light pass before they 
reach the bottom of the eye. Could this be in the eye with- 
out purpose, which suggested to the optician the only effec- 
tual means of attaining that purpose? 1 

"But, further, there are other points not so much, per- 
haps, of strict resemblance between the two, as of superiority 
of the eye over the telescope, yet of a superiority which, be- 

1 Paley was quite right in stating that Dollond corrected chromatic 
aberration in the telescope by the combination in the lens of two 
sorts of glass having different refractive and dispersive powers; also 
in stating that this important discovery in physics was suggested by 
careful study of the eye. But he is now believed to have been wrong 
in intimating that the eye is absolutely free from chromatic aberra- 
tion. Its aberration is so slight, however, as not to interfere at all 
with ordinary vision and not to be detected except by careful experi- 
ment. 



68 THE EYE 

ing founded in the laws that regulate both, may furnish 
topics of fair and just comparison. Two things were wanted 
to the eye which were not wanted (at least in the same de- 
gree) to the telescope; and these were the adaptation of the 
organ; first, to different degrees of light; and secondly, to 
the vast diversity of distance at which objects are viewed by 
the naked eye, viz., from a few inches to as many miles. 
These difficulties present not themselves to the maker of the 
telescope. He wants all the light he can get, and he never 
dircts his instruments, to objects near at hand. In the eye, 
both of these cases were to be provided for ; and for the pur- 
pose of providing for them a subtle and appropriate mechan- 
ism is introduced. 

"I. In order to exclude excess of light, when it is exces- 
sive, and to render objects visible under obscurer degrees of 
it, when no more can be had, the hole or aperture in the eye, 
through which the light enters, is so formed as to contract or 
dilate itself for the purpose of admitting a greater or less 
number of rays at the same time. The chamber of the eye 
is a camera obscura which, when the light is too small, can 
enlarge its opening; when too strong, can again contract it; 
and that without any other assistance than that of its own 
exquisite machinery. It is self-adjusting in the following 
way: — The impression which a varying degree of intensity 
of light makes on the retina, is conveyed to the brain by the 
nerve of vision ; and thence, as a consequence of this stimulus, 
a reflex current of nerve force is emitted, and conveyed by 
appropriate nerve-fibres' to the muscular ring or iris, which, 
by its action, can either contract or expand the pupil. It is 
further, also, in the human subject to be observed, that this 
hole in the eye, which we call the pupil, under all its different 
dimensions, retains its exact circular shape. This is a struc- 
ture extremely artificial. Let an artist only try to execute 



THE EYE (59 

the same; he will find that his threads and strings must be 
disposed with great consideration and contrivance to make a 
circle which shall continually change its diameter, yet pre- 
serve its form. This is done in the eye by an application of 
fibres, i. e., of contractile strings, similar in their position and 
action to what an artist would endeavor to procure, and must 
employ if he had the same piece of workmanship to perform. 
"II. The second difficulty which has been stated was the 
suiting of the same organ to the perception of objects that 
lie near at hand, within a few inches, we will suppose, of the 




Fig. 3. Front view of the eye showing the pupil and the regulating 
fibres around it. 

eye, and of objects which are placed at a considerable dis- 
tance from it, that, for example, of as many furlongs (I 
speak in both cases of the distance at which distinct vision 
can be exercised). Now this, according to the principles of 
optics, that is, according to the laws by which the transmis- 
sion of light is regulated (and these laws are fixed), could not 
be done without the organ itself undergoing an alteration, 
and receiving an adjustment, that might correspond with the 



70 THE EYE 

exigency of the case, that is to say, with the different inclina- 
tion to one another under which the rays of light reached it. 
Kays issuing from points placed at a small distance from the 
eye, and which consequently must enter the eye in a spread- 
ing or diverging order, cannot, by the same optical instru- 
ment in the same state, be brought to a point, i. e., be made 
to form an image in the same place, with rays proceeding 
from objects situated at a much greater distance, and which 
rays arrive at the eye in directions nearly (and physically 
speaking) parallel. It requires a rounder lens to do it. The 
point of concourse behind the lens must fall critically upon 
the retina, or the vision is confused ; yet, other things remain- 
ing the same, this point, by the immutable properties of light, 
is carried further back when the rays proceed from a near 
object, than when they are sent from one that is remote. A 
person who was using an optical instrument would manage 
this matter by changing, as the occasion required, his lens or 
his telescope, or by adjusting the distance of his glasses with 
his hand or his screw; but how is it to be managed in the 
eye? What the alteration was, or in what part of the eye it 
took place, or by what means it was effected (for if the known 
laws which govern the refraction of light be maintained, 
some alteration in the state of the organ there must be), has 
long formed a subject of inquiry and conjecture. The 
change, though sufficient for the purpose, is so minute as to 
elude ordinary observation. The adjustment to distance is 
most likely dependent on the varying convexity of the lens, 
which is determined by the pressure to which it is subjected, 
through the indirect agency of a special muscular contriv- 
ance. These changes in the eye vary its power over the rays 
of light in such a manner and degree as to produce exactly 
the effect which is wanted, viz., the formation of an image 
upon the retina, whether the rays come to the eye in a state 



THE EYE 71 

of divergency, which is the case when the object is near to 
the eye, or come parallel to one another, which is the case 
when the object is placed at a distance. Can anything be 
more decisive of contrivance than this? The most secret 
laws of optics must have been known to the author of a 
structure endowed with such a capacity of change. It is as 
though an optician, when he had a nearer object to view, 
should rectify his instrument by putting in another glass, at 
the same time drawing out also his tube to a different length. 
"Observe a new-born child first lifting up its eyelids. 
What does the opening of the curtain discover? The anterior 
part of two pellucid globes, which, when they come to be 
examined, are found to be constructed upon strictly optical 
principles; the self-same principles upon which we ourselves 
construct optical instruments. We find them perfect for the 
purpose of forming an image by refraction, composed of 
parts executing different offices ; one part having fulfilled its 
office upon the pencil of light, delivering it over to the action 
of another part; that to a third, and so onward: the pro- 
gressive action depending for its success upon the nicest and 
minutest adjustment of the parts concerned; yet, these parts 
so in fact adjusted as to produce, not by a simple action or 
effect, but by a combination of actions and effects, the result 
which is ultimately wanted. And forasmuch as this organ 
would have to operate under different circumstances, with 
strong degrees of light, and with weak degrees, upon near ob- 
jects, and upon remote ones, these differences demanded, ac- 
cording to the laws by which the transmission of light is reg- 
ulated, a corresponding diversity of structure; that the aper- 
ture, for example, through which the light passes, should be 
larger or less ; the lenses rounder or flatter, or that their dis- 
tance from the tablet, upon which the picture is delineated, 
should be shortened or lengthened : this, I say, being the case, 



72 THE EYE 

and the difficulty to which the eye was to be adapted, we 
find its several parts capable of being occasionally changed, 
and a most artificial apparatus provided to produce that 
change. This is far beyond the common regulator of a watch, 
which requires the touch of a foreign hand to set it ; but it is 
not altogether unlike Harrison's contrivance for making a 
watch regulate itself, by inserting within it a machinery, 
which, by the artful use of the different expansion of metals, 
preserves the equability of the motion under all the various 
temperatures of heat and cold in which the instrument may 
happen to be placed. The ingenuity of this last contrivance 
has been justly praised. Shall, therefore, a structure which 
differs from it chiefly by surpassing it, be accounted no con- 
trivance at all ? or, if it be a contrivance, that it is without a 
contriver ! 

"Sturmius held, that the examination of the eye was a 
cure for atheism. Beside that conformity to optical princi- 
ples which its internal constitution displays, and which alone 
amounts to a manifestation of intelligence having been ex- 
erted in the structure; besides this, which forms, no doubt, 
the leading character of the organ, there is to be seen, in 
everything belonging to it and about it, an extraordinary 
degree of care, an anxiety for its preservation, due, if we may 
so speak, to its value and its tenderness. It is lodged in a 
strong, deep, bony socket, composed by the junction of seven 
different bones, hollowed out at their edges. . . . With- 
in this socket it is embedded in fat, of all animaf substances 
the best adapted both to its repose and motion. It is shel- 
tered by the eye-brows ; an arch of hair, which, like a thatched 
penthouse, prevents the sweat and moisture of the forehead 
from running down into it. 

"But it is still better protected by its lid. Of the super- 
ficial parts of the animal frame, I know none which, in its 



THE EYE 73 

office and structure, is better deserving of attention than the 
eye-lid. It defends the eye ; it wipes it ; it closes it in sleep ; 
and its delicate texture is never encumbered with fat/' 

This lid operates both automatically and at will. If when 
the light is very intense, the iris does not shut it off suffi- 
ciently, you partially close the lid, or, without waiting for 
your orders, it partially closes itself, thereby co-acting with 
the iris to protect the retina. Thus the retina is doubly 
guarded by automatic arrangements, and one of these ar- 
rangements acts both automatically and at will to protect the 
whole surface of the eye from injury or annoyance. 

Paley proceeds to say : 

"Are there in any work of art whatever, purposes more 
evident than those which this organ fulfills ? or an apparatus 
for executing those purposes more intelligible, more ap- 
propriate, or more mechanical? If it be overlooked by the 
observer of nature, it can only be because it is obvious and 
familiar. This is a tendency to be guarded against. We pass 
by the plainest instances, whilst we are exploring those which 
are rare and curious ; by which conduct of the understanding, 
we sometimes neglect the strongest observations, being taken 
up with others, which, though more recondite and scientific, 
are, as solid arguments, entitled to much less consideration. 

"In order to keep the eye moist and clean (which qualities 
are necessary to its brightness and its use), a wash is con- 
stantly supplied by a secretion for the purpose; and the 
superfluous brine is conveyed to the nose through a perfora- 
tion in the bone as large as a goose-quill, or, more properly 
speaking, along two capillary tubes, one from either eyelid, 
which enter a duct, lodged in a canal passing through the 
bone. When once the fluid has entered the nose, it spreads 
itself upon the inside of the nostril, and is evaporated by the 
current of warm air, which, in the course of respiration, is 



74 THE EYE 

continually passing over it. Can any pipe, or outlet, for car- 
rying off the waste liquor from a dye-house or a distillery, 
be more mechanical than this is ? It is easily perceived that 
the eye must want moisture : but could the want of the eye 
generate the gland which produces the tear, or bore the hole 
by which it is discharged — a hole through a bone?" 

And, as if for a final precaution to protect man and other 
animals against the loss of their sight, the eye is duplicated, 
so that should one eye be accidentally destroyed, another will, 
in the great majority of cases, be left for use. 1 

"With regard to the origin of the organs of sight, natural- 
ists generally concur in the opinion that, in the most primi- 
tive forms of animal life, the entire body is more or less 
sensitive to light and sound and that, by reason of this sensi- 
tiveness, the little animal probably has a dim and indistinct 
sense of the proximity of other physical bodies, especially 
such as are capable of motion. Their theory is that this sense 
gradually became localized, arid the localized spots developed 
into separate organs of sight and hearing; the former, under 
the influence of light waves, and the latter, under the in- 
fluence of sound waves, and that, at first those organs were 
rude and imperfect, but afterwards developed into the exist- 
ing forms. All this accords with Darwin's theory, and may 
possibly be true. There are, moreover, in or about the eye, 
several peculiar constructions or arrangements, cited by Paley 
as evidences of creative design rather by reason of their 
obvious utility to the animal than by reason of any inherent 
proofs of intelligent contrivance, and which therefore may 
reasonably be considered as due to evolution, or even to 
chance coincidence. The location of man's eyes in the two 

1 This duplication of organs, in the animal body, is a very remark* 
able and significant phenomenon, resulting from a cause as deeply 
hidden as the very foundations of animal life, and indicating tbo 
control of a higher power over the laws of evolution. 



THE EYE 75 

recesses or angles formed by the junction of the ciliary and 
nasal ridges — an arrangement which protects them quite ef- 
fectively from accidental injury ; and the arrangement of the 
lashes and eyebrows; while consistent with the theory of de- 
sign, are by no means to be regarded as proofs of it. But, on 
the other hand, the construction of the compound lens, which 
indicated to Dollond exactly how to remedy a serious defect 
in the telescope, up to that time considered as incurable; the 
iris, which protects the retina from injury, and automatically 
regulates the light to the requirements of its sensitive nerve- 
substance; the tear-glands, their overflow-ducts and the holes 
formed in the nasal bones to allow the ducts to pass through 
and discharge the overflow to the place where it is needed to 
keep the mucous membrane of the nose in healthy condition; 
and the mechanism by which the e} T e automatically adjusts 
itself to objects at different distances: are things that no 
reasoning mind can refer to evolution, or conceive of as due 
to chance and coincidence. It is impossible to exaggerate the 
inventive ingenuity displayed in the wonderful self-adjusting 
eye-curtain. If either of the two inventions last referred to 
had been made by a man, it would have immortalized his 
name. Watt, in the automatic governor by which a steam- 
engine regulates its own supply of steam, and Weston, in the 
process by which a current of electricity traversing an incan- 
descent-lamp filament regulates the electric resistance of that 
filament, made inventions of analogous character; and no 
materialistic philosopher has risen to question their inventive 
genius. On what principle of reason or logic is the same 
kind of invention a conclusive proof of contrivance when 
found in one place, and no proof at all when found in an- 
other? Is this the kind of reasoning to which we are treated 
by materialistic philosophy! If so, the less we hear of its 
reasoning, the greater respect we shall have for it. I can 



76 THE EYE 

conceive of no difference in the two cases under considera- 
tion, except that one reveals the operation of an imperfect, 
and the other, that of a perfect mind — the one mind reach- 
ing its conclusion by a slow and wearisome process of study 
and labor, and the other, by the instantaneous flash of an all- 
seeing intelligence. 

In considering the weight and probative force of the 
proofs cited and to be cited in this work, it must be observed 
and remembered that they are cumulative — they come as a 
multitude of unimpeachable witnesses bearing concurrent 
testimony to prove a single fact, the fact that the exercise of 
nwnd is manifested in the works of nature. 

So far, we have considered only the human eye, which dif- 
fers in important particulars from the eyes of all the lower 
animals. If now, we turn our attention to the entire range 
of the animal kingdom, we shall be amazed at the apparently 
unlimited variety of expedients and combinations to which 
the Creative Power has resorted in providing Its creatures 
with the means of vision. For example, in snakes, which dis- 
card their skin about once a year, like an old coat unfit for 
further use (after having first grown a new one underneath 
to take its place), the skin extends continuously over the eyes 
and would obstruct the vision were not some expedient 
adopted to obviate the difficulty. To provide for the emer- 
gency, the skin, which is elsewhere thick and colored in 
various designs, is created thin and transparent over the eyes 
so as not to interfere with their function. Here is a novel 
and extraordinary contrivance indeed ! Whence came the 
chemistry that decolorized the skin exactly over the underly- 
ing eyes, and nowhere else? Who watched over the skin- 
forming operation and directed the chemical action to con- 
fine itself to those two particular spots? Who was it that 
had the intelligence to foresee that such action would be 



THE EYE 77 

necessary there, and the power over the vital forces of the 
snake to compel them to set it in opration ? Who knows what 
is the nature of the chemical action that prevents the forma- 
tion of color and opacity there, and by what ingredients it 
produces its results? These are vital questions, to which a 
scientific answer is very desirable; for, until it is given, there 
is but one conclusion to be drawn from the known facts, 
namely, that the operation of nature's forces is presided over 
and directed by an all-seeing Intelligence that never sleeps 
or tires. 

Let it be observed that Evolution cannot be assigned as 
the probable cause of the snake's skin having become trans- 
parent at the spots immediately overlying the eyes; for Evo- 
lution proceeds only by slowly modifying pre-existing condi- 
tions, and one of its fundamental principles is that if an 
organ in plant or animal be not exercised it degenerates rap- 
idly and finally ceases to exist. The fishes that have found 
their way into underground waters and taken up their perma- 
nent residence there are found to have lost their eyes. If the 
first snakes had had opaque skins covering their eyes, the 
same misfortune would have happened to them. Besides, the 
snake's skin lasts only a }^ear, and that is too brief a period 
to produce any novelty of structure through the slow processes 
of Evolution. The new skin of next year will not be the 
product of this year's skin, nor will they occupy the relation 
of parent and offspring. Thus the pre-existing condition of 
opacity could not have become modified by Evolution in time 
to save the eyes; nor is it conceivable that it could by that 
means have become modified at all. 

The only alternative theory is that snakes always had 
skins provided with glazed windows to cover and protect the 
eyes — the first snake, as well as the last — but that assump- 
tion is fatal to the whole theory of evolution by progressive 



78 THE EYE 

modification and the survival of the fittest, and leads ns 
directly to a great creative Intelligence underlying and con- 
trolling all the works of nature. That that great underlying- 
Cause is not confined to one method of creation, but some- 
times produces new structures by gradually modifying old 
ones, and sometimes by suddenly bringing them into existence 
without such antecedents, cannot be successfully denied. 

The human eye is normally adjusted for far sight, but its 
focal distance can readily be shortened by tightening up the 
muscles which control the convexity of the lens. It requires 
an appreciable time for a person to do this, as may be ascer- 
tained by experiment. But a bird can instantly adjust the 
focal distance of its vision in the same way. An osprey darts 
down hundreds of feet with unerring accuracy to seize a small 
fish that it sees near the surface of the water — using its far 
sight in spying the fish, and its near sight when seizing it. 
Many insects have two sets of eyes, one set for far sight and 
the other for near sight. Many others are provided with hun- 
dreds, or even thousands, of eyes, the house fly, for example, 
having 8,000, and the swift dragon-fly nearly double that 
number. To our vision unaided by the microscope, each of 
these insects appears to have only two large and bulging eyes 
with regularly-curved visual surfaces; but under the micro- 
scope the two large bulging eyes are shown to be compound 
organs of vision made up of thousands of single eyes con- 
structed in the form of elongated tubes closed at their front 
end and set into the compound eye like pins in a hemispher- 
ical pin-cushion. The heads, or closed ends, of the little tubes 
contact with each other on every side so as to form the con- 
tinuous visual surface of the compound eye, which is now 
seen not to be regularly curved, but composed of almost in- 
finitesimal facets resembling the facets of a cut diamond. 
Each transparent facet closes the front end of one of the 



THE EYE 



79 



tubes and acts as a lens to direct the ray of light to a nerve 
fibril which extends from the inner end of the tube to the 
insect's brain. Thus each facet, tube, and nerve-fibril to- 
gether constitute a separate single eye, provided with an optic 
nerve, and ready for business. The Austrian naturalist, Ex- 
ner, has recently demonstrated that what each single eye sees 
is a separate portion of the field, and that these separate por- 
tions contact together to make up the whole field seen by the 
compound eye. 




Fig. 4. Section through the eye of a dragon-fly. The stem at the bottom 
of the Fig. is the optic nerve, consisting of a fibril from each lens. 



This is a strange and exceedingly complicated but effec- 
tive contrivance for the purposes of the little insect. It ap- 
parently has no means of focal adjustment; but the creature 
probably needs none. The bulging compound eye sees clearly 
in almost every direction; as an attempt to catch its owner 
will readily prove. The two compound eyes are undoubtedly 
coordinated to act together without confusion of vision. 

It is inconceivable that such an organ could have been 
formed without intelligent design, or by any process of blind 



80 THE EYE 

evolution. No known law of evolution by progressive modi- 
fication and survival of the fittest explains how a single eye 
could generate, not a modification of its own form or struc- 
ture, but another single eye exactly like the first; nor how 
thousands of these single eyes, thus unaccountably generated, 
and individually capable of seeing a limited section of the 
entire field, could mass themselves together into a compound 
eye having a continuous visual surface practically curved so 
as to take in the whole area. We know, indeed, that the com- 
pound eye came into existence by the process of natural 
growth, like all other living things ; but that only proves that 
the forces of nature, which determine the fact and direction 
of growth, are not acting blindly or incoherently, but, under 
the guidance and control of an all-seeing Intelligence, are 
working out forms and structures which exhibit the strongest 
possible evidences of design. Such a structure as the eye of 
a» dragon-fly, with its 14,000 lenses cooperating to effect one 
common and useful purpose, would, if created by the hand 
of man, be pronounced by any court in the world to be ob- 
viously the result of intelligent contrivance ; is the structure, 
when found in the works of nature, where no science or 
knowledge can prove that it was, or could be, produced with- 
out intelligent contrivance, any less conclusive? There is a 
limit to the claims of scepticism and unreason, beyond which 
they have no right to ask permission to go; and it seems to 
me that that limit is here reached. 

Nature exhibits a wonderful variety in the form, con- 
struction, and arrangement of the eyes. In some creatures, 
the pupils are round, elongated, or angular. In others, there 
is a multiplicity of eyes, strangely and often queerly disposed, 
eyes surrounding the mouth for the obvious purpose of in- 
specting the food, eyes arranged in the top of the head, in 



THE EYE 81 

the ends of the horns, on the tail, or at the sides of the legs, 
eyes with no lids or with one, two, or even three lids, eyes 
relatively small, eyes in the head and larger than all the rest 
of the head. These variations excite our curiosity and won- 
der, but are useless for the purposes of this discussion, and 
will therefore be passed without further comment. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

The Ear. 

The ear is another organ whose construction clearly mani- 
fests the exercise of creative contrivance. Moreover, it shows 
that its constructor possessed a perfect knowledge of the most 
recondite laws of mathematics, physics and mechanics. It is 
evident that he foresaw the vast possibilities of usefulness to 
the aiiimal kingdom that lay hidden within those laws. 

The ear is a most wonderful structure — an apparatus by 
which human society, with all that it implies, is rendered 
possible through the utilization of mere air-waves. Light- 
waves enable man to see: but sound-waves have enabled him 
to construct and use language, without which he could never, 
on this planet, have risen above the condition of a deaf, dumb 
and savage brute. 

AVith the eye only, he can determine the size, shape, move- 
ment, direction and color of things* with the ear only, he can 
take cognizance of the sounds which they give off, and thence 
judge of their direction and movement. This is all they do; 
and yet it is to these two forms of vibration, light-waves and 
sound-waves, that we are indebted for all that makes life 
worth living. From the mere staetment of these facts, we 
might be led to infer that the Creative Intelligence, knowing 
the importance of the eye and ear to man, would be certain 
to confer upon them a perfection of design and construction 
worthy of their dignity; and our inference would apparently 
be justified. But the care bestowed by the same great Creator 
upon the humble spider's wonderful spinning apparatus, upon 
the planning and fashioning of the bee's defensive weapon, 

82 



THE EAE 83 

and upon the amazing contrivance of the dragon-fly's eye, 
teach us impressively that our judgment of the Creator's pur- 
poses is entitled to very little consideration. 

Sound-waves differ so widely from light-waves in form, in 
velocity, in the medium through which they are propagated, 
and in the rapidity with which one wave follows another, that 
very different instrumentalities are necessary for their utiliza- 
tion by the senses. Light-waves, propagated through the 
ether at the velocity of 186,400 miles per second, are incap- 
able of producing sensible vibrations of the minutest struc- 
ture made by man; whilst sound-waves, propagated in air, 
at the velocity of eleven hundred and twenty feet per second, 
are capable of exerting great force and of easily producing 
sensible vibrations in physical structures. The eye is 
adapted to vibrations of the ether; the ear, to vibrations of 
the heavier medium, air. To that end, it is provided with a 
thin stretched membrane (the drum-head or ear-drum) 
which vibrates readily in consonance with sound-waves. The 
vibrations thus set up in the membrane are transmitted to 
the auditory nerve in a modified and greatly-reduced form, 
by a complex arrangement of intermediate devices (some- 
times, for the sake of brevity of description, called "the in- 
ternal ear") whose mechanical functions and mode of opera- 
tion science has not yet been able to identify and verify, 1 

1 It is impossible to convey a clear idea of this complicated struc- 
ture either by verbal description, pictorial illustration, or both com- 
bined. The parts are small, numerous, complex, and involved, some- 
times one inclosing and concealing another. Moreover, they are of 
many different and strangely peculiar forms, and lie in planes vari- 
ously inclined to each other. The part called "the organ of Corti," 
for example, whose function is unknown, contains 10,000 microscopic 
rods, and about 15,000 hair-cells. Out of all this labyrinthian com- 
plexity, the purpose of two devices is clearly apparent, viz., the 
Eustachian tube, to equalize the air-pressure on both sides of the 
ear-drum, and the handle of the malleus, to dampen the vibrations 
of the ear-drum and transmit the vibratory movements to the inter- 
mediate connections which convey them to the auditory nerve. 



34 THE EAE 

except that they in some way transmit the vibrations to the 
auditory nerve, which conducts them to the brain, where the 
mind recognizes them as signs of events occurring at the 
time in the outer world, and readily learns to understand and 
translate their meaning. 

The general juan of organization is remotely analogous to 
that of the variable-resistance telephone-transmitter — the 
analogy consisting in the fact that both employ aerial sound- 
waves to communicate to a diaphragm vibrations correspond- 
ing in form to those of the causative sound-waves, and also 
employ a conductor in the form of a wire to receive and trans- 
mit the vibrations coming to it from the diaphragm through 
intermediate connections. But there the resemblance ends — 
the telephone does not hear, but only telegraphs to the ear- 
drum the impulses of sound-waves that are too far away to 
act upon it directly. The distant sound-wave is mechanically 
reproduced in copy close to the ear. The ear then takes 
charge of the matter, and communicates it to the brain, where 
the mind is waiting to hear of it and to take action accord- 
ingly. The telephone is only a useful gatherer of news to the 
ear, which is the instrument of communication with the mind. 

Unlike the telephone, the internal ear needs for its work 
no electro-magnet, and no battery — simple contact of the in- 
termediate connections appears to be all that is necessary. 
But what an enormous expenditure of inventive contrivance 
was required to fit those connections for their work ! We do 
not know why, or how it was necessary ; but it evidently was. 
A few members of the connecting train are large enough to be 
visible to the naked eye when the ear-structure is dissected 
and examined; and, in them and the parts that cooperate 
with them, the evidences of contrivance and careful design 
can plainly be seen, and even the immediate purpose of their 
combination can be as plainly understood. But in the great 



THE EAE 85 

majority of members, including the ten thousand curiously 
constructed rods of Corti, visible only through the micro- 
scope, and in the thousands of hair-cells, our ignorance of 
their purpose and action precludes the possibility of determin- 
ing what proofs of creative design are exhibited in them. 

A priori, the transmission of audible sound-vibrations to 
the brain through the mechanism of the ear would seem to 
require great complexity of structure and organization. The 
range of audible sound-vibrations extends from about 1,000 
per second to 40,000 per second. The timbre or quality of 
the resulting sound depends upon the number and pitch of 
the auxiliary vibrations; and the loudness of the sound is 
determined by the amplitude of the vibratory movement. 
Think of the billions of permutations of which all these 
sound-elements are capable; and that the mechanism of the 
internal ear is able to report them all to the brain with per- 
fect accuracy ! No wonder that we find that mechanism com- 
plicated and impossible to understand! True, the telephone 
is able to transmute all these sound-waves into electric vibra- 
tions, and then to transmute the electric vibrations back into 
audible sound-waves; and the wireless-telegraph is able to 
transmute aerial sound-waves into etheric waves of the same 
"pitch," and thus to send visible Morse signals without a 
wire. These are wonderful inventions; but they cannot take 
the place, nor do the work, of the organs of sight and hearing, 
which contain the secret of harnessing together mind and 
matter. They can only bring their collection of mechanical 
signals to the eye or the ear, upon which alone they must rely 
to make it intelligible to the mind, through the cooperative 
action of mechanism of complex and unknown construction 
with special orders of brain-cells of equally unknown con- 
struction. The contrivance of such mechanism is infinitely 



8(3 THE EAB 

beyond the genius of man; can it be accounted for on the 
theory of evolution ? 

Not on any theory of evolution given to us by Darwin 
and his followers. His theory requires antecedent structures 
— which it supposes to have been in the course of ages grad- 
ually modified into existing structures. But here, so far as 
we know, there were no antecedent structures, capable of be- 
ing thus modified. His theory rejects the idea of contrivance ; 
but here, contrivance is too strongly indicated to be sum- 
marily disposed of except by countervailing evidence of the 
most conclusive character — and there is no such evidence. 
Evolution, therefore, utterly fails to shake the conclusion 
that there has been manifested in the works of nature an in- 
ventive genius far transcending the genius of man. 

There is another invention in the ear, which we have not 
yet considered. The diaphragm or tympanum is a thin and 
delicate membrane, liable to be bursted inwards by heavy and 
sudden sounds, unless some provision had been made to sup- 
port it on the inner side. Such provision has been made by 
its inventor — an ample air-passage, extending from its inner 
side to the air spaces of the mouth and nose. A sound-wave 
thus reaches both sides of the thin membrane at substantially 
the same instant, and supports it in each direction against 
the force coming against it from the other direction. To be 
precisely correct, the air-wave has perhaps seven or eight 
inches farther to travel to reach the inner, than to reach the 
outer, side of the membrane, so that it strikes the ear about 
one two-thousandth of a second sooner on the outer, than on 
the inner, side. This ordinarily produces no inconvenience; 
but where men are exposed to sudden heavy sounds, as in 
the turret of a battleship, they learn to keep the mouth open, 
to give the air-wave a free passage to the inner side of the 
ear, and thus to minimize the effect of the explosion. 



THE EAft g? 

The duplication of the ear .is referable to the general 
scheme of duplication which embraces all the external organs 
that are not arranged on the median line of the body. . It is 
consistent with the theory of design, but not necessarily pro- 
bative of it, although it does, at ordinary distances, enable us 
to determine the direction from which a sound comes. 

Finally, observe how even the relative arrangement of the 
eyes and ears is precisely such as would be expected from an 
intelligent and careful designer, and therefore furnishes ad- 
ditional evidence of design. Chance dumps things together 
without regard to order or consequences; intelligence does 
not. Chance would be as likely to arrange the eyes in the 
back of the head and the ears in the front, or both on the 
top, as to arrange them in any other position. But the de- 
signer of the human body adapted the legs to move it for- 
ward, not backward, and arranged the eyes in front to give 
warning of danger when moving forward. He arranged the 
ears in the closest possible proximity to the brain, where their 
connections to ihe auditory nerves would be reduced to a 
minimum in length and size, would not be in the way of the 
other organs, and would be most fully protected from ex- 
ternal injuries. He was obliged to project the visual surface 
of the eyes even beyond the general surface of the body, in 
order to enlarge as far as possible the field of vision ; and to 
protect them by the projecting brow and nose. On the other 
hand, in constructing the ear he was under no such limita- 
tions, but could arrange its working organs (the tympanum 
and its connections) deep within the head without in any 
way interfering with the hearing. This difference is due to 
the fundamental difference between the nature of light-waves 
and the nature of sound-waves. Light-waves, so called, are 
etheric impulses or disturbances radiating in straight lines in 
every direction from their common source. Strictly speaking, 



88 THE EAE 

they are not "waves" at all, but rays as independent of each 
other as are the spokes of a wheel. Being composed of ether, 
which is inelastic, they can exert no force laterally but only 
straight ahead in the direction of their length. Hence it fol- 
lows that we see only with the rays or radiations which 
actually come directly against the eye and therefore if the 
visual surface were not set out on a line with, or beyond, the 
surrounding surface of the face, our field of vision would be 
extremely limited. But air is an elastic medium, whose 
waves, therefore, consist not in expanding rays of oscillation 
but in expanding areas of alternate condensation and rarefac- 
tion. As one of these elastic areas passes in the vicinity of 
the ear it exerts its force, not merely straight ahead, but in 
every direction — it is for an instant, as if the ear were in the 
exhaust-chamber of an air-pump or the receiver of an air- 
compressor. Hence it is not necessary that the ear should be 
struck directly by an advancing wave — it is sufficient if it be 
subjected to the expansion or contraction of the surrounding 
air caused by the passage of the wave and, therefore, even if 
the ear-drum be arranged in a cavity or recess in the head, it 
will hear. The subject is well illustrated by placing tubes 
with their ends at the eye and ear ; with the one, you can see 
only the object at which the tube is aimed; with the other 
you can hear in every direction. 

The designer of the ear, knowing these facts, placed the 
ear-drum and its connecting mechanism in a deep recess in 
the side of the head, where they are effectively guarded from 
accidental injury; but he was obliged to place the eye at the 
surface, and guard it by other means. The relative arrange- 
ment o! the organs of sight and hearing, therefore, together 
with the prominence of the one and the withdrawal of the 
other into its protecting recess, are exactly what we should ex- 
pect from a creative hand guided by an intelligent mind thor- 



THE EAR 89 

(Highly familiar with the nature of ether and air and with the 
laws of optics and acoustics. The form of man's external ear 
seems to have been selected for its beauty, like the coloring of 
the e}-e, and gives indication that its designer possessed in 
high degree the aesthetic faculty. In the beasts, where its 
construction is not plainly indicated as having aesthetic 
beauty in view, we find it in the form of an ear-trumpet, artic- 
ulated to the head, and associated with a set of muscles by 
which the animal can turn it in any direction. The utility of 
this contrivance to the beasts is self-evident ; but to man, pos- 
sessing a higher degree of intelligence and reason, it was not 
necessary. 

It is conceivable that superior adaptation to the animal's 
needs, coupled with the "survival of the fittest" may in the 
long course of ages, have determined the exact location of the 
eyes and ears; but, while conceivability is a necessary condi- 
tion of proof, it does not in itself take the place or perform 
the functions of evidence. We are, therefore, at liberty to 
adopt any other theory that is conceivable and reasonable. 
Adaptation to a useful purpose does not account for origins, 
although it may for survivals. Where the origin of an organ 
cannot be explained on the theory of evolution, there is but 
one other theory which will explain it — the theory of pur- 
posive creation by an intelligent Creator. But that theory, 
when necessary to explain the origin, includes and accounts 
for the adaptation; and it is useless for the evolutionist to 
invent fine-spun hypotheses to account for the adaptation, 
when he cannot account for the organ itself. He should re- 
member that, while the greater includes the less, the less does 
not include the greater ; and that, while it may be interesting 
to speculate upon the immediate influences that caused the 
location of the eyes and ears where we find them, or upon the 
causes that equipped the ears of the dog, the horse, the rabbit 



90 THE EAR 

and the deer, with a dirigible ear-trumpet, it does not relieve 
him from the necessity of explaining the eyes and ears them- 
selves, nor from the necessity of explaining how the desirabil- 
ity of two dirigible ear-trumpets could create the motor- 
nerves necessary to put them under the control of the ani- 
mal's brain. Here, again, are origins which adaptation is 
powerless to explain. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Nutritive System. 

Let us take another example — the nutritive system of the 
human body. It is an extremely complicated combination of 
wonderful contrivances all working in cooperation for a com- 
mon purpose — in fact, so complex that it would require a 
whole library to describe it in detail, and, therefore, the neces- 
sary limits of my work permit only a reference to the gen- 
eral plan of the system. 

Let any intelligent person consider that plan and then 
say whether it does not clearly indicate the exercise of inven- 
tion. It comprises : the alimentary tube, extending from the 
mouth through the whole length of the head, neck, chest and 
abdomen, to receive, prepare and digest the food, separate out 
its nutritive elements, and discharge the waste products; the 
stationing of the eyes and nose near the entrance of the tube, 
where they act as detectives to prevent the entrance of un- 
clean and noxious substances into the mouth, i 1 the forming 
of the front portion of the long tube into a chamber (the 
mouth) adapted to receive and hold the food while it is un- 
dergoing the process of mastication; the arrangement, in, or 
in connection with, that chamber, of the powerful jaws pro- 
vided with three kinds of teeth for cutting, tearing, or grind- 
ing, the different kinds of food, as their nature or condition 
may require; the tongue, assisting in presenting the food 

*It will be instructive to compare this provision with that found 
in the leech, where ten little eyes are arranged immediately around 
the blood-sucking mouth for the obvious purpose of warning it not 
to fasten itself upon a tainted surface. 

91 



92 THE NUTEITIVE SYSTEM 

properly to the teeth; the salivary glands for elaborating and 
discharging into the mouth a fluid to assist in the acts of mas- 
tication and swallowing, and afterwards to aid the gastric 
juice in liquefying the contents of the stomach and preparing 
them for digestion; the organs of taste, located in the back 
part of the mouth, where they act as additional detectives to 
make a final test of the fitness of the food after it has been 
masticated and before it reaches the throat; a valve (the 
epiglottis) to cover the opening into the windpipe and pre- 
vent the food from "going down the wrong way;" automatic 
muscles acting progressively downwards, like the teeth or 
boxes of a mechanical conveyor, to force the food down 
through the throat and oesophagus into the stomach; the 
stomach, to receive the food from the oesophagus, complete 
the preparation for its digestion, and pass it along into the 
intestines ; a system of glands in the walls of the stomach for 
elaborating the gastric juice and pouring it into the stomach ; 
the pyloric valve at the outlet of the stomach to hold back the 
food till it is partially dissolved and in a suitable condition 
for digestion; the peristaltic movements of the internal walls 
of the stomach to agitate its contents and bring them suc- 
cessively to the neighborhood of the discharge opening (pylo- 
rus) into the upper bowel (duodenum) ; a similar peristaltic 
movement in the bowels to urge their contents along; the 
liver and the pancreas, two large organs situated near the 
stomach, which manufacture, respectively, bile and pancrea- 
tic juice, and deliver them together into the duodenum 1 , 

1 Two ducts, one from the liver and one from the pancreas, unite 
to form a larger duet, which extends into the duodenum and conveys 
both fluids into it. It has been found that both fluids act with 
their utmost efficacy only when mingled together; and here we see a 
contrivance of such a peculiar and marked character as to indicate that 
their Creator foreknew this fact and planned the construction and 
confluence of the two ducts accordingly. They originate in separate 
and entirely distinct organs. The two fluids which they conduct 



THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM 93 

where they perform the principal part of the work of diges- 
tion; the lacteal and lymphatic tribes, more than five millions 
in number, arranged along the bowels and acting as a filter 
to separate the nutritious elements of the digested food 
(chyle and lymph) from the waste products; the thoracic 
duct, for conveying the chyle and lymph up to the base of 
the neck and there delivering the nutritive mixture into the 
subclavian vein, where it is mingled with the impure venous 
blood on its way to the heart, and is by the heart first sent 
to the lungs for aeration and purification and then to all 
parts of the physical system for the supply of nourishment 
to the body. 

Thus the main alimentary process, from the entrance of 
the food into the mouth to the delivery of the chyle and lymph 
into the blood, is a continuous process, consisting of steps in 
regular and orderly sequence — each step preparing the way 
for the next — a process which brings into successful coopera- 
tion several millions of different instrumentalities ranging all 
the way from grinding-mills to chemical factories and auto- 
matic mechanical conveyors. 

The heart, lungs and blood-vessels are among the most 
important members of this main system — if any can be said 
to be most important where all are indispensable. The heart 
is divided into two small compartments called auricles, whose 
office is to receive the blood from the veins, and two larger 
compartments called ventricles, whose function is to expel 
the blood into the arteries. The auricles are in the upper part 
of the organ, and communicate with the ventricles through 
passages provided with valves opening downward. The ve- 
to the duodenum are of very dissimilar chemical composition. I can 
conceive of nothing but intelligent design -which could have led these 
two ducts toward each other and united them in one. Certainly 
there is nothing in Darwin's laws of Evolution which can account 
for this remarkable fact. 



94 THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM 

nous blood from the upper and lower extremities enters the 
right auricle, whence it passes to the right ventricle, from 
which the next contracting "beat" expels it through the pul- 
monary artery, and its branches and their innumerable sub- 
divisions and "capillaries," into every part of both lungs. 1 

At the same time, air drawn from the windpipe into 
every part of the lung tissue, through the bronchial tubes and 
their minute subdivisions, comes everywhere into such close 
proximity to the artery and its capillaries, 1 that an exchange 
is able to take place between the air-tubes and capillaries, by 
which the former give up their oxygen, to consume the im- 
purities of the blood, and receive back the products of the 
combustion, which they deliver over to the windpipe to be 
expelled from the body. The capillaries, at their extremities, 
open into equally minute veins, which unite into larger veins 
that return the blood, now purified, to the left auricle, whence 
it passes through the valved passage into the left ventricle, 
and is by the next beat of the heart driven into the aorta, and 
thence to every part of the body. The combustion that takes 
place in the capillaries of the lungs contributes no inconsider- 
able heat to the whole body; and that is augmented by the 
friction of the blood in its vessels, the friction of the muscles 
when in action, and the chemical actions and reactions going 
on continually throughout the physical system. 

I have described the lung and heart-mechanism with some 
particularity, in order to emphasize the ingenuity of its con- 
struction, and especially to show the exact correspondence of 
the heart to the double-acting force-pump, one of man's most 
ingenious inventions. No one ever questioned the ingenuity 

1 The work which the heart does in twenty-four hours is equivalent 
to that required to raise one ton over 92 feet high. 

1 It is estimated that the minute air-passages of the lungs number 
725,000,000, exposing the blood to an air-surface one hundred and 
thirty times as large as the entire surface of the body. (Prof. E. T. 
Reichert, in Am. Text-Book of Physiology, Vol. 1, p. 396.) 



THE NUTKITIYE SYSTEM 95 

of the man who invented the pump, although it may be that 
he learned how to do it from a study of the valves, chambers, 
and alternate contractions and expansions, of the heart; just 
as Dollond learned to make the telescope achromatic from a 
study of the lens of the eye. To understand the action of the 
heart requires a knowledge of mechanical principles; is it 
conceivable that it required less to plan the organ and to con- 
struct and arrange its chambers, passages and valves? That 
they now come into existence by natural processes of growth, 
as do all the physical organs and structures, does not dispose 
of the difficulty, which consists in the fact that they are 
formed in accordance with a manifest plan and a very in- 
genious one at that. They did not create themselves, and 
therefore did not originate that plan. They have no mind; 
and yet the forces of nature, in forming them, were appar- 
ently guided by mind. Contrivance and invention are ex- 
plainable only by one theory, that of the action of a contriv- 
ing and inventive mind; these organs exhibit convincing evi- 
dence of contrivance and invention, and, consequently, con- 
vicing proof of the action of such a mind. That they grow by 
natural processes shows that the mind which originated the 
plan controls the forces of nature and accomplishes its pur- 
poses through those forces. 

I have called attention to the inter-action of the minute 
air-vessels and blood-vessels of the lungs, and have referred 
to it as producing a combustion of the impurities of the blood 
brought there by the circulation. Any intelligent high 
school boy can explain that a fire is simply the union of the 
oxygen of the air with the fuel. When we see a person 
making a fire we do not require a scientific argument to con- 
vince us that he has a purpose or design in making it, nor 
that his formation of a purpose or design proves the action of 
mind ; when we see nature making a fire in the lungs, is not 



96 THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM 

the presumption of design, and of mental action, equally con- 
clusive? If a fire should mysteriously break out at night in 
an unoccupied building would anybody (except, perhaps, a 
materialistic philosopher) doubt that somebody had kindled, 
it ? The first inquiry would be : Was it kindled by accident, 
or intentionally? If investigation should reveal that the 
materials for kindling a fire had been carefully assembled at 
the spot the suspicion of incendiarism would be strongly 
justified, and the next inquiry would be as to the motives of 
the incendiary — whether the building was heavily insured 
or any person had reason for revenge upon the proprietor. 

In the case of lung-combustion, investigation shows that 
arrangements were carefully made beforehand to ensure its 
occurrence — combustible materials from places remote from 
each other were assembled on the spot and in such relation 
that they were sure to ignite. Intention is therefore proved, 
and we proceed to look for a motive. We examine the venous 
blood on its return to the heart, and find that it has become 
badly deteriorated. It is visibly dark in color, impure, and 
no longer fit to sustain life. We examine it after its subjec- 
tion to the oxygen of the air in the lungs, and find that it is 
now bright in color, purified, and re-vitalized — the fire has 
destroyed everything that was of an injurious character. We 
examine the air expelled from the lungs, and find that it has 
been depleted of its oxygen, and that it is carrying away the 
products of the combustion. The case is now clear — the 
elaborate arrangement of the arteries, veins, air-tubes and 
heart, was intended to keep the blood from impurities, fit it 
to sustain life, and convey it to every part of the body. The 
wonderfully ingenious mechanical and chemical combination 
did not originate through chance, but evidently through intel- 
ligence — it was invented by the author of nature and "na- 
ture's works." 



THE NUTEITIVE SYSTEM 97 

Closely connected with the nutritive system so as to form 
practically an integral part thereof, is the lymphatic system. 
This is an extensive system of ducts, reservoirs, check-valves, 
and glands, cooperating with each other and with the liver, 
intestinal walls, and blood-vessels, to secret or separate from 
the chyle and the blood a thin colorless liquid termed lymph, 
which performs a most important function in building up 
the tissues of the body. Apparently lymph is substantially 
the same in composition as the watery and colorless liquid 
constituent of the blood (termed by physiologists the 
"plasma" of the blood) when separated from the red and 
white corpuscles and the blood-plates. It appears first in 
innumerable minute irregular gaps in the tissues. These gaps, 
when examined with the microscope, are seen to communicate 
In various ways with one another, and with minute lymphatic 
vessels, which latter, when traced onward from their begin- 
nings, presently assume a structure comparable to that of 
narrow veins with very delicate walls and extremely numerous 
valves. These valves open away from the gaps of the tissues, 
as the valves of the veins open away from the capillaries. 
The lymphatic vessels unite to form somewhat larger ones, 
each of which, however, is of small caliber as compared with 
a vein of medium size, until at length the entire system of 
vessels ends, by numerous openings, in two main trunks of 
very unequal importance, the thoracic duct and the right 
lymphatic duct. The latter is exceedingly short, and receives 
the termination of the lymphatics of a very limited portion 
of the body; the termination of all the rest, including the 
lymphatics of the alimentary canal, are received by the 
thoracic duct, which runs the whole length of the chest and 
for some distance below it. Both of the main ducts have 
walls which, relatively, are very thin; and, like the smaller 
lymphatics, the ducts are abundantly provided with valves so 



98 THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM 

disposed as to prevent any regurgitation from either duct 
into its branches. At the opening of each duct into the 
subclavian vein a valve exists which permits the free entrance 
of lymph from the duct into the vein, but forbids the entrance 
of blood from the vein into the duct 

It is a peculiarity of the lymphatic system that some of its 
vessels end or begin by open mouths in the so-called serous 
cavities of the body — those large irregular interstices between 
organs, the membranous walls of which interstices are known 
as the peritoneum, the plurae and the like. For present pur- 
poses, therefore, these serous cavities may be regarded as vast 
expansions of portions of the lymph-path. Another peculiar- 
ity of the lymphatic system depends upon the presence of the 
lymphatic glands or ganglia, which also are intercalated here 
and there between the mouths of lymphatic vessels entering 
and leaving them. These bodies are believed to be of im- 
portance in producing leucocytes (white corpuscles) which get 
from them into the lymph-stream and are eventually brought 
into the blood. The lymph-path as a whole, extending from 
the tissue-gaps to the veins at the root of the neck, therefore 
both differs from, and in some respects resembles, the blood- 
path from the capillaries to the same point 1 . 

Treating of this subject, Gray's Anatomy (p. 772 et seq.) 
says: "Lymph is obtained from the blood-plasma. From 
lymph the body cells obtain food, into lymph they discharge 
their waste materials, and there is a distinct lymphatic cir- 
culation, the constituents of the plasma passing into the peri- 
vascular lymph-spaces and returning to the heart by way of 
the lymphatics and certain veins. . . . 

"The lymphatics have derived their name from the appear- 
ance of the fluid contained in their interior (lympha, water). 
They are also called absorbents, from the quality they possess 

1 American Text-Booh of Physiology, Vol. 2, pp. 49, 71, and 145-6. 



THE NUTKITIVE SYSTEM 99 

3f absorbing certain materials from the tissues and conveying 
them into the circulation. Larger lymphatics are called 
trunks and the largest are called ducts. . . . 

"To this system also belong the lacteal, or chyliferous 
vessels. The lacteals are the lymphatic vessels of the small 
intestines, and differ in no respect from the lymphatics gen- 
erally, except that during the process of digestion they con- 
tain a milk-white fluid, the chyle, which passes into the blood 
through the thoracic duct. . . . 

"The lymphatics are exceedingly delicate vessels, the coats 
of which are so transparent that the fluid they contain is 
readily seen through them. . . . They retain a nearly 
uniform size, and may be cylindrical in. shape, but usually 
are interrupted at intervals by constrictions which give them 
a knotted, beaded, or sac-like appearance. These constric- 
tions are due to the presence of valves in the interior of the 
vessel, . . . The valves are not found in fixed situations, 
and vary in number. Between the ends of the fingers and 
the axillary glands Sappey counted from sixty to eighty. 1 
They are arranged in pairs and resemble the aortic semi-lunar 
valves. . . . The lymphatics of any part or organ exceed 
the veins in number and in capacity, but in size they are 
much smaller." 

The most striking differences between the blood-system 
and the lymph-system are, (1) that, in the former the circula- 
tion depends upon the pumping action of the heart, and in 
the latter, it does not, but depends, during one-half of its 
circuit, upon the forward pressure of the lymph constantly 
exuded from the walls of the capillaries and other sources, 
and upon the lymphatic check valves which prevent it from 



1 This would indicate about one hundred and forty of these valves 
in the two arms. There are many thousands in the whole system. 



100 THE NUTEITIYE SYSTEM 

traveling backwards; (2) that the movement of the lymph 
through the tissues is therefore slower than that of the blood- 
circulation through the arteries and veins; (3) that the 
arteries, veins and heart constitute, by themselves alone, a 
complete circulation-system; whereas, the lymphatic ducts 
do not, but only carry the lypmh through one-half of its cir- 
cuit, making use of the veins and arteries to carry it through 
the other half; and (4) that the lymph contains no red discs 
nor blood-plates. The two circulation-systems are thus indis- 
solubly locked together into one compound alimentary-trans- 
portation system, in which the lymph performs the duty of 
carrying the nutritious food-elements from the small arteries 
and capillaries to the tissue wherein they are utilized. 

In addition to the provisions above described, there is 
what may be regarded as a subordinate department of the 
alimentary system, the functions of which are performed 
principally by means of minute absorbent vessels in the skin 
and in the walls of the intestines. Thus life may be sup- 
ported by bathing the skin with concentrated food-solutions, 
or by injecting them into the lower bowel (rectum). Medic- 
inal solutions are also applied in both of these ways, and 
with beneficial results. The absorbents of the skin and intes- 
tines may be regarded as forming a part of the lymphatic 
system. 

I invite particular attention to the check-valves in the 
arteries, veins and lymphatic ducts and passages. A check- 
valve is a valve adapted to permit fluids to traverse a pipe 
or passage in one direction freely, but automatically to close 
against their passage in" the opposite direction. Man has in- 
vented many forms of check-valve, which he uses in the 
various structures employed in his business operations. In 
his tide-water-mill-dams he has for ages employed check- 
valves, which open when the tide begins to rise and close 



THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM 101 

when it begins to ebb, to allow the reservoirs to be filled with 
tide-water, and retain the water for use. The check-valves 
are, in their principle, substantially like the two-leafed check- 
valve formed by the junction of the thoracic duct with the 
sublavian vein, to permit the chyle and lymph to enter the 
vein but prohibit blood from leaving the vein to enter the 
duct. In many of his force-pumps, man uses substantially 
the same arrangement of check-valves that is found in the 
human heart (and in the arteries and veins), and for the 
same purpose. Who can reasonably deny the exhibition of 
intelligent design in such an arrangement ! In the pyloric 
valve at the outlet from the stomach into the upper bowel, 
we find a check-valve whose operation so closely resembles 
the miraculous that it seems to defy rational explanation 
arid almost to suggest the existence of intelligence in the 
valve itself; for it closes to retain the food in the stomach 
till prepared for digestion, but as often as different por- 
tions, duly prepared, present themselves at the passage way, 
it partially opens to let them through, and then closes against 
the rest — like the doorkeeper who opens the door for ticket- 
holders, but holds it closed to all others. How came that 
particular valve to be endowed with the capacity of apparently 
intelligent discrimination between two pieces of the same 
beef-steak — the one prepared, and the other not prepared, 
for the immediate action of the pancreatic and hepatic 
fluids ! Xo other valve in the whole physical system pos- 
sesses such a power or needs it; but this valve needs it for 
the due performance of its duties and has been provided with 
it ! Surely, it requires less credulity to believe that this 
valve, with its unique and inexplicable power of deliberate 
choice, was planned by some inscrutable Intelligence which 
manifests itself in the works of nature, than to believe that 
it came into existence by blind chance, or by progressive 



102 THE NUTEITIVE SYSTEM 

modification and the survival of the fittest. The first theory 
is conceivable and intelligible; the last two are not. 

Nature has arranged thousands of check-valves 1 in the 
arteries, veins and lymphatic ducts throughout the body, to 
prevent any possible back-flow of the fluids passing through 
them. These check-valves are not mere accidental obstruc- 
tions in their respective channels, like rocks or stranded logs 
in the bed of a river, but they are true valves, attached to 
the walls of the several vessels, and carefully planned and 
artistically constructed to perform their peculiar and self- 
evident office. I call upon Evolution either frankly to admit 
their formation by intelligent design, or else to furnish some 
theory of their origin that will satisfy the demands of human 
reason. What blind "force of nature" could have constructed 
these valves to open freely to the movement of a liquid in one 
direction, and to close obstinately against it in the opposite 
direction? Forces are generally believed to operate uni- 
formly, under the control of immutable "laws"; but here is 
a vital force which, if it created these valves, deliberately, and 
beforehand provided a positive check against itself, to come 
into instant operation, resisting force with superior force, in 
case any defect in the action of the physical organs should at 
any future time happen to cause an accidental reversal of the 
blood-current or lymph-current. Let Evolution explain 
away this apparently clear and convincing evidence of creative 
design, if it can! 

There is still another provision in the human system 
(germane to the topic under discussion because also con- 
nected with the general nutritive scheme) which is strongly 
indicative of creative design. The adrenals, or supra-renal 
capsules (as they are called by physiologists and surgeons) 

*It was through these valves that Harvey discovered the circula- 
tion of the blood. 



THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM 103 

are two flattened, more or less triangular or cocked-hat shaped 
bodies, resting by their lower border upon the upper border 
of the kidneys. They are glands, very abundantly supplied 
with nerves. If they be removed or incapacitated, the man 
dies within two or three days, or sometimes within a few 
hours, with pathological symptoms resembling those of an 
obscure and obstinate disease known as Addison's disease. 
They were practically unnoticed by the scientific and med- 
ical world, and their functions were unknown, until the 
year 1856, when Brown-Sequard discovered that if they were 
removed or destroyed, great prostration, muscular weakness, 
acceleration of the heart-action, and abnormal blood-pressure, 
immediately supervened, followed by death within a few 
days. The part they played in the physical organization at 
once became a matter of great scientific interest, and the 
subject of careful study and experiment, in which Brown- 
Sequard's observations have been fully confirmed and much 
important information bearing upon the nature and action 
of these glands has been obtained. They furnish very con- 
clusive evidence of the production of an internal secretion 
that is absolutely necessary to supplement the normal action 
of the other organs or some of them. If all the other organs 
of the physical system are free from disease, and the adrenal 
glands are removed, the animal dies. 

It has been discovered that by removing the adrenals 
from a healthy animal, preparing an extract from them (ad- 
renalin), and administering the extract at regular intervals 
to a patient who is suffering from the partial or total loss 
of his adrenal glands, he may recover and remain in good 
health for years. Moreover, it has been found by experiment 
that, fifteen minutes after a dog had apparently died (its 
breathing and heart-action having ceased for that length of 
time), an injection, into the carotid artery, of a mixture of 



104 THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM 

salt solution and adrenalin restored the animal completely 
to life. These facts indicate that the function of the ad- 
renal glands is to supply to the blood a powerful stimulant, 
which is absolutely necessary to vital action in mammalian 
life. 

Curiously analogous to the action of the adrenals, is the 
action of the parathyroid glands. These are three or four 
little glands, each about the size of a grain of wheat, situated 
in the neck immediately behind and in close connection with 
the thyroid g]and. Their existence was not known until the 
year 1880, and their function remained unknown until 1908. 
Then, it was found that they furnish to the blood some un- 
identified substance which, in mammals, is absolutely neces- 
sary to nutritive assimilation. Previous to 1908, it was sup- 
posed that this unknown substance was furnished by the 
thyroid gland; and, as it was suspected that goitre and 
cretinism were due to some imperfect action of the thyroid 
gland, an extract of the thyroid gland of a rabbit or other 
animal was administered in such cases and with salutary 
effects. But, since the discovery of the parathyroid glands, 
it has become known that the thyroid gland has little or 
nothing to do with goitre and cretinism, and that the good 
effects of the thyroid extract were due entirely to accident 
— the accident of inadvertently removing from the rabbit or 
other animal its parathyroid glands with its thyroid and 
making the extract from both together. 

A case illustrating the remarkable effect of parathyroid 
extract was reported by cable from London in December, 
1908, in the following words: 

"London, Dec. 22. — The experiment of treating with 
thyroid extract a girl physically and mentally undeveloped 
has had a remarkable success. The patient is Mildred Hart, 
who, although 23 years old, had the development of a child of 



THE NUTEITIVE SYSTEM 105 

only five years, and was 33 inches tall. Her teeth were the 
same as a child's, her skin was cold and harsh, and her facial 
features were undeveloped. The soft spot on the top of a 
baby's head could be felt on her. She had no appetite and 
was mentally unobserving. This was in October. 

"A physician diagnosing the absence of the thyroid secre- 
tion took charge of the case. He administered twelve and 
a half grains of the extract of thyroid in the glands daily. 
The patient has grown two and a half inches. Her skin is 
moist and warm, her face is considerably developed, and she 
has cut several new teeth. She is constantly hungry. 

"The most wonderful change, however, is in her mental 
condition. She has become extraordinarily loquacious, using 
a vocabulary she could not have acquired in two months, 
which shows that she unconsciously listened to and stored 
up words without the power of employing them." 

How strange that the little adrenals should have been 
contrived to prepare for the blood an ingredient that was 
necessary to keep the body alive; and that the parathyroids 
should have been contrived to create for the circulation an- 
other ingredient that was necessary to enable the body to 
grow to its normal size and develop its normal faculties ! 
Did Evolution do these things? If so, she must have super- 
natural intelligence, — an intelligence capable of foreknowing, 
and deliberately making ready for, specific future events — 
for, if she had not formed the adrenalin in the very first 
mammalian body it would have been impossible for that body 
to live or man ever to have been created; and if she had not 
provided that body with parathyroid glands it could never 
have developed beyond infancy. Only one thing can account 
for the origin of the adrenals and the parathyroids, and that 
is, the Divine Intelligence that foreknew the necessity for 
their creation. 



106 THE NUTEITIVE SYSTEM 

We should like very much to know what Evolution has 
to say about the leucocytes. These are free cells, approx- 
imately one three-thousandth of an inch in size, and ap- 
parently originating in the lymphatic ganglia or tissue. Bil- 
lions of them exist in the lymphatic and blood circulation, 
where their presence is necessary to the life of man. They 
almost seem to have an independent life of their own; and 
have sometimes been called "wandering" cells, from the fact 
that they have been seen to work their way through the walls 
of the capillaries into the surrounding tissue where they 
roam about at their own sweet will seeking what (or whom) 
they may devour. We are indebted to the distinguished Ger- 
man scientist, Metchnikoff, for much information about them. 
From their apparent voracity, he terms them phagocytes or 
eating-cells (from phagein, to eat, and cytos, cell). He con- 
siders them microscopic policemen, exploring the blood-ves- 
sels, lymphatics and tissues to rid the human system of dis- 
ease-germs, which they seem able to accomplish so long as 
they themselves remain in a healthy and vigorous condition. 

Now, so far as is known, there was no pre-existing struc- 
ture from which these leucocytes or phagocytes could have 
been derived by progressive modification and survival of the 
fittest; and therefore the votaries of Evolution are wholly 
unable to account for their existence in the system. In 
structure, capability of locomotion, and method of accom- 
plishing it, they resemble, in all observable particulars, the 
amoebae, the lowest form of life yet discovered. But, in the 
human system, they are absolutely necessary to its continued 
existence. When they become destroyed or incapacitated for 
the performance of their work, sickness and death inevitably 
result. The red corpuscles of the blood are undoubtedly a 
product of the system itself, where the organ for the repro- 
duction of them, in the adult, has satisfactorily been shown 



THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM 107 

to be the reel marrow of the bones. There is strong reason 
for believing that the white corpuscles also have originated 
in the system itself; and none for a contrary conclusion. 
Their enormous number, their diffusion throughout all parts 
of the system, and their function of protecting it from 
injurious germs, clearly indicate creative design; and the 
absolute inability of the Darwinian theory of evolution to 
account for them on any other hypothesis strongly supports 
that conclusion. 

Let us cite another example of intelligent contrivance 
in the "works of nature/ 5 The female has a set of organs 
peculiar to herself, whose function is to perpetuate the race. 
During the period of gestation she needs her ordinary supply 
of food, and a larger supply for the rapidly-growing foetus — 
and, strange to say, at that particular epoch, her alimentary 
system seems to gird itself for a supreme effort — it furnishes 
all the food needed for both, and generally more than is 
needed; for she grows fat notwithstanding the unaccustomed 
strain upon her resources. During this period her blood con- 
veys aliment to the new being through a tube specially pre- 
pared for the occasion, and which is thrown away when its 
purpose is accomplished. At the end of the period, her 
blood-vessels turn the child's aliment in a new direction, to 
a point where it will be available for his use under the new 
conditions. It is no longer so while in the same food-form 
as before, and the mammary glands therefore start their 
chemical factory into operation, transforming it into milk 
available to him through the only form of organ which he, 
at that time, is able to use. How strange and wonderful it 
all is! And what a supreme and unanswerable proof of 
design in the works of nature ! What is the use to ask Evo- 
lution about it! She cannot account for the equipment of 
the milk-factories in anticipation of the event, nor for the in- 



108 THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM 

vention of the apparatus and chemical process by which milk 
is produced from blood — to say nothing of the other 
mysteries ! 

Until after the time of the American Civil war, breech- 
loading guns were not in general use, and we had to intro- 
duce the charge through the muzzle, and force it down by 
means of a ramrod. In the nutritive system, nature provided 
a long tube which has to be charged several times a day, and 
she was obliged to employ means for forcing the charge 
down. A ramrod is not available, for several reasons — it 
would be inconvenient to carry and operate; and the tube is 
of varying diameter and very far from straight. She there- 
fore had to invent some better contrivance for forcing the 
solid and liquid food down through the throat and esophagus 
into the stomach, and for impelling it along in the stomach 
and intestines. Accordingly, she invented the peristaltic mo- 
tion (peristalsis) of the lining membrane of the alimentar}^ 
tube — one of the most astonishing contrivances to be found in 
the whole range of nature's works. In the American Text- 
Boole of Physiology (Yol. I, p. 372) Dr. Howells, Professor 
of Physiology in Johns Hopkins University, describes the 
peristaltic motion as follows: 

"The mode of contraction of the plain muscle in the 
walls of some of the viscera, especially the intestine and the 
ureter, is so characteristic as to be given the special name 
of peristalsis. By peristalsis, or vermicular contraction as it 
is sometimes called, is meant a contraction which, beginning 
at any point in the wall of a tubular viscus, is propagated 
along the length of the tube in the form of a wave, each part 
of the tube as the wave reaches it passing slowly into con- 
traction until the maximum is reached, and then gradually 
relaxing. In viscera like the intestine, in which two mus- 
cular coats are present, the longitudinal and the circular, the 



THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM 109 

peristalsis may involve both layers, either simultaneously or 
successively, but the striking feature observed when watching 
the movement is the contraction of the circular coat. The 
contraction of this coat causes a visible constriction of the 
tube that may be followed by the eye as it passes onward." 

By this contrivance, the food, as it enters the throat, ex- 
cites a peristaltic wave of contraction behind it, which vir- 
tually seizes the food and forces it along the passage until 
it is safely lodged in the stomach. "Wave follows wave until 
the result is reached. In the stomach the same motion is set 
up, churning the food around and around until the pyloric 
valve is willing to let the chyme pass into the duodenum. In 
the duodenum and the smaller intestines, the same motion is 
continued so long as there is anything to be moved forward. 
In passing water from the bladder, a similar motion is set 
up in the passage (ureter). Thus nothing is left to chance, 
— but appropriate and effective mechanism is provided for 
every anticipated emergency. No words of mine can add im- 
pressiveness to this example of Creative wisdom and in- 
genuity. Nothing like it is possible in the crude structures 
invented by man. 



CHAPTER IX. 
The Breathing Apparatus. 

The great cavity of the human body is divided by the 
diaphragm into two compartments — the chest or thorax, con- 
taining the lungs and heart, and the abdomen, containing 
the stomach, bowels and other organs connected with the 
nutritive system. 

The chest is an air-tight expansible and contractible box. 
the cone-shaped top of which is closed in by the structures of 
the neck, the walls formed by the vertebral column, breast- 
bone (sternum) and ribs with their connecting cartilaginous 
and muscular tissue, and the bottom, by the arched or dome- 
shaped diaphragm. The lungs are in the form of two large 
flattened bags, in contact with the walls of the chest and 
communicating with the atmosphere through a passage 
formed by the windpipe (trachea), the throat and the nose 
and mouth. They are not composed of muscular tissue, and 
are consequently passive during the act of breathing except 
as their elasticity aids in the expulsion of air from them. 
They are inflated by a downward flexure of the diaphragm, 
which enlarges the capacity of the chest and causes air to rush 
into the lungs and expand them to fill the partial vacuum 
thus formed. The whole breathing-apparatus is, therefore, 
a valveless bellows, in which air is admitted and expelled 
through the same conduit. In ordinary breathing, this bel- 
lows is operated automatically, drawing air into the lungs 
by the involuntary downward flexure of the diaphragm, and 

110 



THE BEEATHING APPAEATUS m 

allowing it to be expelled by the elasticity of the lung-tissue 
and of the enclosing walls of the chest and abdomen. 

Those ribs which enclose the chest are articulated to the 
vertebral column, from which they slant downward and for- 
ward and then upward to the sternum, to which their front 
ends are connected by ligaments. They are curved and rock 
slightly on their axes. A double effect of this construction 
is, that if the lower ribs of the chest be swung inward they 
raise the sternum, causing all its connected ribs to swing up- 
ward and at the same time to rock slightly on their axes, so 
that the cavity of the chest becomes thereby laterally en- 
larged in all directions. 

The diaphragm is an air-tight, dome-shaped, partition, 
extending across the great cavity of the trunk, to the walls 
of which its edges are strongly attached. In structure, it is 
a thick muscular membrane, capable of exerting ample force 
to swing the lower ribs of the chest inward and thus elevate 
the sternum and upper ribs. Its ordinary operation is auto- 
matic ; but being in itself a muscle it can, at will, be actuated 
with a force greater than that which is required for the 
normal automatic action of the breathing-apparatus. The 
action of the diaphragm is supplemented and assisted (espe- 
cially in deep breathing) by that of a large number of pec- 
toral and intercostal muscles, which, like the diaphragm, work 
automatically in ordinary breathing. 

Without resorting to the theory of Creative design, it is 
impossible to conceive of such a muscle as the diaphragm 
growing across the great cavity of the body. No chance could 
cause it to grow there. Think of blind and unreasoning Evo- 
lution producing such an organ! How would she go about 
the work of constructing it? It is to be a thin but strong 
sheet spanning a great open space, as a suspension bridge 
spans the open space between the banks of a river. Man con- 



H2 THE BREATHING APPARATUS 

structs suspension-bridges by leading separate wires across 
the river, anchoring their ends firmly at each bank, and then 
wrapping the wires with other wires to hold them together 
in the form of a cable. With two such cables, parallel to each 
other, it is an easy matter to connect them by cross-beams 
and to support the floor or "deck" of the bridge upon the 
cross-beams. But nature cannot use that mode of construc- 
tion ; and, besides, the chasm to be bridged is circular and its 
walls must be firmly connected to the bridge all around the 
circle. 




Fig. 5. Diagram showing chest and diaphragm. I, Diaphragm when 

lungs are deflated ; II, Diaphragm when lungs are partially inflated ; 

III, Diaphragm in position to inflate lungs fully. 

Nature therefore proceeds on a different plan. She draws 
a line (so to speak) around the inner wall of the trunk, indi- 
cating where the edges of the diaphragm are to be attached. 
Then she causes minute muscle-fibres (millions of them) to 
start out all along that line and grow towards the centre of 
the circle, where they finally meet and become united in a 
strong central tendon. These growing muscle-fibres are lat- 
erally connected together throughout their whole length, so 



THE BKEATHING APPAEATUS 113 

that when their ends meet at the centre, the entire chasm 
has become completely decked over by a strong sheet or web 
of muscular tissue. Meanwhile, she establishes a connection 
between the muscle-fibres and the brain, by means of motor 
nerves that enable the latter to flex the diaphragm at will; 
and she also connects them to the sensory nerve system. 

Now I ask the judgment of any sensible person whether 
such an organ as the diaphragm, and such a construction, 
could have arisen through the action of forces not under the 
direction of intelligence! It is sheer insanity to imagine 
such a thing. 

The utmost, ingenuity of man has never been able to in- 
vent a mechanical apparatus at once so complicated in con- 
struction and so perfect in operation as is the breathing ap- 
paratus. The problems which its great Inventor had to solve 
were the most difficult ever presented for consideration. 
First, the blood, constantly supplied and constantly vitiated 
by use, had to be constantly purified; and oxygen was the 
only agent that could purify it. So lungs had to be invented 
to enable it to be brought into contact with the oxygen of 
the air. Secondly, to bring it into contact with the air, a 
powerful force-pump was needed and supplied, together with 
a complicated system of arteries and veins through which to 
circulate the blood through the lungs and thence to all parts 
of the body. Thirdly, to purify the immense quantity of 
blood that courses through the lungs many times every day, 
their whole structure is practically occupied with blood-ves- 
sels and air-vessels, leaving no room in it for muscles with 
which to expand and contract it for breathing. It followed 
from these facts that the only practicable way to operate the 
lungs was to enclose them in an air-tight expansible and 
contractible box and operate the box. To make the box ex- 
pansible and contractible was, from our finite point of view, 



114 THE BEEATHING APPAKATUS 

a problem of no easy solution ; for its lateral walls could not 
be made flexible without exposing the heart to injury ; its top 
was necessarily immovable; the space below the heart and 
lungs was filled with vital organs whose functions could not 
be interrupted or impeded without disaster; and there was 
no available room for mechanism. The construction adopted 
was, therefore, apparently the only possible solution of the 
problem. The diaphragm was accordingly extended across 
to act as a flexible bottom for the box, was strongly attached 
to the walls of the chest, and was made of muscle-tissue, con- 
trolled by motor-nerves, so that its central part could be 
flexed upward and downward to reduce or increase the ca- 
pacity of the box at will. The walls of the box were rein- 
forced by a strong framework of ribs to prevent their col- 
lapse and to guard the heart and lungs from accidental 
injury. 

To enable the lungs to contract readily, for the purpose of 
expelling the breath, their substance was made elastic, so 
that it could automatically close its air-passages whenever 
the diaphragm and the muscles of the chest allow it to do so. 

Each lung is covered with a thin membrane, the pulmon- 
ary pleura, which lies in constant contact with a similar mem- 
brane, the parietal pleura, that lines the walls of the chest. 
In expanding and contracting the chest, thus inflating and 
deflating the lungs, one of these two membranous surfaces 
slides upon the other. This rubbing movement of the two 
pleurae is constantly going on, night and day; but the 
Author of nature has provided that the rubbing surfaces shall 
be kept anointed with a lubricant so perfect that no friction 
is experienced from it. 

~No one realizes the immense amount of hard work which 
the diaphragm and chest-muscles have to do in order to ele- 
vate the ribs and draw in the breath sixteen times every min- 



THE BKEATHING APPAKATTJS H5 

ute during life. 1 And yet, notwithstanding this unremitting 
toil, these muscles never experience the sensation of fatigue, 
but are just as fresh after ninety years of exercise as at the 
end of the first hour ! This ability of the diaphragm and the 
chest-muscles (and of the heart also) to work without fatigue 
has been for ages an insoluble puzzle to the physiologists, and 
is no nearer to an explanation to-day than it was a century 
ago. All these organs are muscles, normally acting automat- 
ically, and never getting tired; whereas every muscle acting 
in response to our will soon experiences fatigue and is obliged 
to rest. 

Fatigue, the necessity of rest to recover from it, and the 
necessity for sleep, are explained by science as follows : Mus- 
cular action either produces, or is produced by, a chemical 
action within the muscle itself, by which minute portions of 
the muscle-tissue are consumed, or in other words decom- 
posed, in order to generate force — just as fuel is consumed 
in generating steam-force or electric force. The ashes and 
gases of the tissue thus consumed, remain in the muscle until 
they can be removed and the consumed tissue replaced from 
the blood; and while they remain they are poisonous to the 
muscle. The exchange of the waste products for the fresh 
building-materials cannot be accomplished while the muscle 
is at work, because decomposition is going on more rapidly 
than recomposition. Hence, the muscle must be allowed to 
rest from time to time in order to restore it to its original 
vigor. 

All parts of the physical system are thus continually 
wasted and renewed — the muscles more actively than the 
parts which have less work to do. The result is, that the 

1 The heart and the lower end of each lung rest upon the diaphragm 
and are carried up and down with it about an inch and a half and 
two inches, respectively. (Sibson's Anatomy.) 



116 THE BEEATHING APPAEATUS 

whole system becomes gradually poisoned by its own waste 
matter, and a longer period of rest and general recuperation 
is required. When this general poisoning becomes so great 
as to reach the nerve-centres of the medulla oblongata, it 
inhibits the action of certain ganglions (as yet unidentified), 
and we become unconscious, or, in other words, sleep, till the 
system has had time to recuperate. 

It follows from this, that the very nature of muscle is 
such that it tires easily and needs frequent and considerable 
periods of rest — periods whose duration is proportionate to 
the amount of work done. And yet here are muscles (the 
heart and the muscles of the breathing-apparatus) that never 
tire and never rest ! And, strange to say, they are the mus- 
cles that do more work than all the others put together ! 

Is it a mere chance coincidence that these muscles happen 
to be the only, ones whose resting for even a few brief min- 
utes would inevitably cause death — whose action must there- 
fore be automatic, for, otherwise, sleep would be equivalent 
to death? Or, on the other hand, are these things an abso- 
lute demonstration of intelligent Creative design? In my 
judgment, there can be but one answer to this question. Co- 
incidences, and at the same time the necessity for them, do 
not, according to human experience, occur together unless in 
response to the dictates of a controlling will. In the breathing 
apparatus and the heart, they concur in a manner so ex- 
traordinary, and with results so vitally important, as to leave 
no reasonable doubt of Creative design. 

And it should be remembered that the breathing-apparatus 
constitutes but one complex contrivance in a great system of 
equally complex contrivances, all correlated to it and to each 
other in so wonderful a manner as to leave no doubt of a 
general plan involving and uniting the whole in one vast con- 
trivance. For the breathing-apparatus actuates the lungs to 



THE BEEATHING APPARATUS 11? 

breathe air to purify the blood ; the heart pumps the blood to 
them to be purified; the purified blood and the lymph con- 
vey to all the organs their building materials and remove their 
waste products; the nutritive organs supply the blood and 
lymph with everything that the physical system needs; and 
each organ is imperatively necessary to the action, and even 
to the continued existence, of every other. If there was such 
a general plan, then there can be no longer any doubt of the 
Divine Intelligence that formed the plan. If there was not 
such a plan, then human reason is worthless, and its conclu- 
sions are idle dreams. The Evolution of such a combination 
of complex and cooperating structures, or any one of them, is 
inconceivable, unless it be an evolution directed and controlled 
by intelligence — and that is creation. 

In my opinion, no single structure, in the whole extent of 
the animal kingdom, is more absolutely conclusive of the exer- 
cise of mind in the planning and construction of nature's 
works, than the one to which I will now refer. In exam- 
ining it, you almost see the operation of the creative mind! 
Yet this wonderful structure is so simple that a child can 
understand it as clearly as an adult, — which gives it a peculiar 
value for the purposes of my argument. I will borrow Pro- 
fessoi Eyner Jones's description of it from the first volume 
of his Natural History of Animals, p. 6, where he says : 

"There is one elegant arrangement connected with the 
breathing-tubes of an insect specially worthy of admiration; 
and perhaps in the whole range of animal mechanics it 
would be difficult to point out an example of more exquisite 
mechanism, whether we consider the object of the contrivance 
or the remarkable beauty of the structure employed. The air- 
tubes themselves are necessarily extremely thin and delicate; 
so that on the slightest pressure their sides would inevitably 
collapse and thus completely put a stop to the passage of air 



118 



THE BREATHING APPARATUS 



through them, producing, of course, the speedy suffocation 
of the insect, had not some means been adopted to keep them 
always permeable ; and yet to do so, and at the same time to 
preserve their softness and perfect flexibility, might seem a 
problem not easily solved. The plan adopted, however, fully 
combines both these requisites. Between the two thin layers 
of membrane which form the walls of every air-tube, a del- 
icate elastic thread (a wire of exquisite tenuity) has been 
interposed, which, winding round and round in close spirals, 




Fig. 6. Air-pipe of fly. 

forms by its revolutions a cylindrical pipe of sufficient firm- 
ness to preserve the air-vessels in a permeable condition, while 
at the same time it does not at all interfere with its flexibility. 
This fine coil is continued through every division of the 
trachea, even to their most minute ramifications, a character 
whereby these vessels are readily distinguished when examined 
under the miscroscope." 

Gosse, quoting and commenting upon the passage above, 
says: 

"Man has imitated this exquisite contrivance in the spiral 
wire spring which lines flexible gas-pipes; but his wire does 



THE BREATHING APPARATUS H9 

not pass between two coats of membrane. One of the most 
interesting points of the contrivance is the way in which the 
branches are (so to speak) inserted in the trunk, the two 
wires uniting without leaving a blank. It is difficult to de- 
scribe how this is done; but by tracing home one of the 
ramifications you may see that it is performed most accur- 
ately, — the circumvolutions of the trunk-wire being crowded 
and bent round above and below the insertion (like the grain 
of timber around a knot), and the lowest turns of the branch- 
wire being suitably dilated to fill up the hiatus. 

"You must not suppose, however, that the whole of one 
tube is formed out of a single wire. Just as in a piece of 
human wire-work the structure is made out of a certain num- 
ber of pieces of limited strength, and joinings or inter- 
lacings occur where new lengths are introduced, so, strange 
to say, it seems to be here. It is strange, I say, that it should 
be so, when there can be no limit to the resources, either of 
material, or skill to use it; but so it is, as you may see in 
this specimen, which has been dissected out of a body of a 
silk-worm. The spiral is much looser here than in the air- 
tube of the fly, the turns of the wire being wider apart; and 
hence its structure is much more easily traced. Here you see 
in many places the introduction of a new wire, always com- 
mencing with the most fine-drawn point, but presently taking 
its place with the rest so as to be undistinguishable from 
them. In some cases certainly (perhaps this may be the ex- 
planation of the phenomenon in all) the wire so introduced 
may be found to terminate with the like attenuation before it 
has made a single volution, and seems to be inserted when 
the permanent curvature of the pipe would leave the wires 
on the outer side of the curve too far apart, half a turn, or 
even much less, then being inserted of supernumerary wire." 



120 



THE BEEATHING APPARATUS 



No words of mine could add anything to the interest or 
conclusiveness of the simple facts. 

But it is not alone in insects that this non-collapsible 
tubing is found. In man and his mammalian relatives, we 
find substantially the same invention in the windpipe 
(trachea). There, however, the construction is slightly modi- 
fied, to suit the exigencies of the case. Strong cartiliginous 
rings, instead of a spiral wire, are enclosed between the two 




Fig. 7. Front view of trachea. 



layers of flexible membrane of which the pipe is composed, to 
guard it against collapse. The rings extend only around the 
front and sides of the trachea, about two-thirds of its circum- 
ference, the interval between their posterior extremities being 
bridged over by the membrane. 

Without this substantial reinforcement, the tube would 
be liable to be closed by any accidental pressure upon it, the 



THE BREATHING APPARATUS 



121 



breath stopped, and in a few minutes the animal would be 
asphyxiated. 

The non-collapsible tube, whether existing in the insect's 
spiracles or in man's breathing apparatus, is made non-col- 
lapsible in substantially the same way ; and it needs no argu- 
ment to prove that it was thus made, in both instances, for 




Fig. 8. Rear view of trachea. Bronchial tubes omitted. 



the same purpose. The argument that was used with such 
fatal effect against some of Paley's illustrations of creative 
design, namely, that the animal found itself in possession 
of a given structure or appurtenance and discovered that it 
could be made serviceable, has no place here; this apparatus 
was not merely serviceable — it was absolutely necessary to 



122 THE BEEATHING APPARATUS 

life — without it, the whole human race would have died out 
before it ever reached the distinction of standing on two legs. 
Neither the insect nor the mammal used it because they dis- 
covered that it might be made serviceable — they used it be- 
cause they had to use it — there was no option to be exercised. 

And there was another invention connected with it in both 
cases. The tube thus fortified against collapse was a breath- 
ing tube, and the air-currents might carry into it a dangerous 
quantity of fine dust : so the insect's attenuated tube was bar- 
ricaded with a dense chevaux-de-frises of microscopic hairs 
extending across it in every direction ; and man's nostrils were 
guarded by coarser hairs. 

If any intelligent person would like to be satisfied, once 
for all, as to the reality of Divine contrivance in the works 
of nature, let him consider carefully the construction and 
operation of two great tubes that are found in the bodies of 
man and the other superior animals, and then forever dismiss 
all further doubt on the subject. 

These two great tubes are the gullet (esophagus) and 
the windpipe (trachea). One extends from the throat to the 
stomach, for the purpose of furnishing a passage for the con- 
veyance of food. In man, it is about nine or ten inches in 
length and averages about an inch in diameter. The other 
extends from the throat to the lungs, to furnish an air-con- 
duit. In man, it is about four and a half inches in length, 
and about an inch in diameter, and extends downward di- 
rectly in front of the upper portion of the gullet, with which 
it is in contact. 

In construction, the gullet is a soft collapsible muscular 
tube, having, as already stated, two sets of muscle-fibres, those 
of one set extending longitudinally, and those of the other 
set arranged circumferentially, of the tube. It is these cir- 
. cumf erential fibres that contract successively in waves to force 



THE BREATHING APPARATUS 123 

the food down into the stomach as already described. The 
two pneumogastric nerves descend in close contact and spread 
out around its walls, conveying undoubtedly the motive force 
which excites its peristaltic action. "Without that action, the 
animal would not get the food from the mouth into the 
stomach. 

The windpipe, in man, is composed of imperfect car- 
tilaginous rings, connected with each other by fibrous mem- 
brane, and is provided with muscular fibres, mucous mem- 
brane, and glands. The muscular fibres are disposed in two 
layers, one running longitudinally, and the other transversely, 
of the tube. The glands furnish a secretion which serves to 
lubricate the inner surface of the tube. The cartilaginous 
rings, from sixteen to twenty in number, are imperfect in 
that they do not extend entirely around the tube, but, at its 
rear side where it is in contact with the gullet, become thinned 
out into a mere connecting membrane — a form of structure 
in which the rings at all times keep the tube free for the 
passage of air through it, but at the same time the flexibility 
of its rear wall prevents it from exerting a pressure against 
the gullet that might obstruct the passage of food through 
the latter. 

Xow pause for a while to reflect upon the remarkable dif- 
ferences between these two contiguous tubes, each exactly 
adapted to the performance of its own function and totally 
useless for that of the other. Without the peristaltic action 
of the one, or the imperfect cartilaginous reinforcing-rings of 
the other, no large land-animal could survive. It needs no 
argument to show that these are specific and ingenious con- 
trivances designed and carefully adapted to perform their 
specific functions. Nor does it need any argument to show 
that no law of Evolution can account for the differences of 
construction and operation found in these two adjacent tubes. 



CHAPTER X. 
The Glands. 

When nature desires a substance for any special use, she 
experiences no difficulty in providing it; and yet she has to 
be extremely particular as to the chemical composition of 
every substance employed by her, for the reason that any 
mistake in her formulae, or carelessness in compounding her 
materials, might be fatal to life. She therefore prefers to 
construct and operate her own chemical factories, so that she 
may be absolutely sure that they will be perfectly adapted to 
her requirements, and that no mistake or carelessness will 
ever occur in their operation. She needs a vast number and 
variety of peculiar substances for her work of building up 
and caring-f or the animal structure ; and for the manufacture 
of each one of them she establishes a special factory or system 
of factories adapted to the purpose. These chemical factories 
are by the scientists named glands. 

A gland is denned, anatomically, as "a soft granular organ 
of the body, consisting of a congeries of blood-vessels, nerves, 
and a peculiar tissue/ 5 That is not much of a definition or 
description, as we shall have occasion to see ; but is better than 
none, and is good as far as it goes. Undoubtedly, a clear 
idea of the visible characteristics of a gland can be com- 
municated more readily by pictorial than by verbal descrip- 
tion; as the accompanying illustrations of a few glands se- 
lected from the countless millions found in the human system 
will make manifest. In fig. 9 is represented a vertical sec- 
tion of a small portion of the skin (as seen through the micro- 

124 



THE GLANDS 



125 



scope) containing several sweat-glands a, and two or more 
oil glands b, each communicating, by means of tubular con- 
duits, with the surface of the skin, as shown at a'h', respec- 
tively. It will be observed that the sweat-glands, at the bot- 
tom of the conduits or pores, are constructed in the form of 
minute loosely-coiled tubes, which lie deeper in the skin than 
do the oil-glands; and that the latter are constructed on a 




Fig. 9. Sweat Glands and Oil Glands. 



very different plan and provided with a larger discharge-con- 
duit, which in many instances, extends to, and surrounds, a 
shaft of hair growing from a root more deeply buried in the 
skin. All these glands are supplied with nerve-fibers and 
nutritive capillaries too minute to appear in the cut. 



126 THE GLANDS 

These several different forms of gland (and countless 
others) have been created through the agency of the "forces 
of nature," and for very dissimilar purposes. The office of 
the coiled sweat-glands is to extract saline water from the 
lymph and blood, and force it to the surface of the skin to 
cool the heated body by evaporation. The office of the leaf- 
shaped oil-glands is to manufacture an oil from materials 
brought by the blood and lymph and to discharge it upon the 
surface of the skin and hair to keep the latter in proper con- 
dition. It is unnecessary to say that, to extract salt water 
from blood and lymph, where it always exists, and to manu- 
facture by chemical processes hair-oil from blood and lymph 
where it never exists, are two entirely different things, the 
former being a mere filtering operation, and the latter a true 
chemical manufacture. Observe that nature obliges the blood 
and lymph to transport to a certain spot materials for build- 
ing a filtering-establishment, and also to build it out of those 
materials, and there to equip it with every appliance necessary 
for its filtering work; and that she obliges the same blood 
and lymph not only to transport to another certain spot in the 
same neighborhood materials for building a particular kind 
of chemical-factory, but also to build and equip that factory 
for its special business ; and then, both establishments having 
been completed, she obliges the blood and lymph to supply 
them for perhaps the next fifty, sixty, or a hundred years, 
with the "raw materials" necessary for their daily business. 
This is not one of the "fairy tales of science" spoken of by 
the poet, but is the simple plain statement of well-known 
facts which every intelligent person can easily verify for him- 
self if he will take the slight trouble to do it. He already 
has been long familiar with the nature of the soft oil and 
saltish water supplied to the skin by the pores, and with the 
utility of such supply. With a microscope and a shred of 



THE GLANDS 127 

human skin, he can see the pores and the glands and examine 
them at his leisure. He knows that the little glands must 
have been formed out of materials brought to the spot by the 
circulation, and that they are forming or extracting their 
dissimilar products from materials brought to them by the 
same circulation. And, finally, he sees that the two kinds of 
glands are not of the same form; and reason tells him that 
they must differ materially in their internal construction, or 
one of them would not always make hair-oil, and the other 
always extract salt water, from the same blood or lymph. In 
short, he is able to obtain for himself all the information 
concerning these two glands that could be given in a learned 
lecture by the greatest scientist in the world. 

But one thing neither he nor the great scientist will ever 
be able to explain; and that is, how the blood or lymph, or 
any other unthinking substance not possessiong even the rudi- 
ments of a mind, can manifest the superlative intelligence 
necessarily implied and actually exhibited in the plan and 
construction of these two little glands — how any such sub- 
stance could realize the desirability of bathing and oiling 
the skin and hair; could know how to construct and equip 
an automatic bathing-apparatus suitable for the purpose ; and 
could possess that perfect knowledge of the nature of the 
primary elements and of the laws of chemistry that beyond 
all question was indispensable to render possible or even con- 
ceivable the building of an oil-factory adapted to select from 
blood or lymph the elements which when chemically com- 
bined together would become an oil, and not only adapted to 
select them but also to combine them together in exactly the 
right proportions for the purpose — that is the thing of which 
we look in vain to science for an explanation. To attempt 
to explain it by attributing inventive intelligence to the 
lymph, blood, and circulation-vessels themselves, is to at- 



128 THE GLANDS 

tribute to them the possession of a mind superior to that 
of the man of whose physical body they form a very small 
part — is to assume that an almost infinitesimal fraction is 
greater than the whole, which is a mathematical and physical 
absurdity. On the other hand, to attempt to explain it with- 
out attributing to them the possession of mind, is to assume 
a miracle — and not only one miracle but millions of them; 
for there are in the human body millions of these oil-glands, 
and millions of other glands even more wonderful than they. 
There is no escape from the necessity of assuming the action 
of a mind existing somewhere, as the true explanation of these 
astonishing facts. That mind, which planned and directed 
the construction and mode of action under consideration, does 
not exist in the physical tissues, nor in the blood and lymph, 
nor anywhere in the man himself, but somewhere else. Where, 
then, is it ! 

Now, if we were treading on metaphysical ground there 
might be danger of error in our conclusions ; for metaphysics, 
as admitted by Kant, one of the greatest of all metaphysicians, 
contributes to the establishment of true theories nothing but 
the criticism and destruction of false ones. But here we are 
dealing not with metaphysical speculation but with facts ; and 
the unquestionable facts absolutely necessitate the conclusion 
at which we have arrived. Where, then, is the mind that 
controls and directs the forces of nature; that created and 
organized the glands; that set the adrenals at work to fur- 
nish an effective stimulant, the absence of which would be 
fatal to mammalian existence ; that endowed the pyloric valve 
with the ability to distinguish between foods fully prepared, 
and foods half-prepared, for the action of the digestive fluids ; 
that created and organized the spider's wonderful spinning- 
apparatus, the defensive weapons of the snake and the bee, 
the scientifically-constructed optical instruments so gener- 



THE GLANDS 129 

ously furnished even to the humble house-fly; and the many 
other inventions to which we have referred or shall here- 
after have occasion to mention? 

From the same blood and lymph from which the oil-glands 
manufacture oil, the mammary glands manufacture milk, the 
salivary and gastric glands secrete fluids that assist in pre- 
paring the food for digestion and even have themselves a di- 
gestive action upon certain foods, the pancreas and liver 
create more-powerful digestive fluids, the tear-glands produce 
a briny eye-water, the glands or membranes of every movable 
joint manufacture an exquisite lubricating-oil, the glands of 
the ear manufacture ear-wax, the glands of the chin and axilla 
manufacture butyric acid, and many other glands, including 
those of the reproductive organs, the parathyroid glands, the 
supra-renal glands, and the lymphatic glands, manufacture or 
secrete various other substances of totally dissimilar character 
— more than a dozen different kinds of factories, equipped 
with different machinery, and manufacturing from the same 
"raw material" many substances that possess characteristics of 
structure and quality totally unlike. The products them- 
selves do not, as a rule, exist in the blood (where some of 
them would be fatal to life or health), but their elements, 
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, etc., 
exist there in other and different combinations. The mechan- 
isms of the various glands decompose these other combina- 
tions so as to get at the elements separately, and then, by 
synthesis, recompose them into the different new combina- 
tions required. And the engineer who constructs these fac- 
tories never makes a blunder — never locates a bile-factory in 
the knee, nor an oil-factory in the eye, but puts each exactly 
where it should be, and equips it with exactly the machinery 
necessary for its predetermined work. 

Now, the facts above stated, that all these glands are 



130 THE GLANDS 

built up from the blood and lymph, and that after they have 
been completed some of them are found to be nitration plants, 
and others to be chemical factories capable of manufacturing 
important products out of the crude materials brought to 
them by the blood or lymph, cannot be questioned: and it 
remains only to indicate the conclusion which necessarily fol- 
lows from these premises. 

Through the universal observation and experience of sev- 
eral thousand millions of human beings during the last five 
thousand years, mankind has come to know one fact with 
what may fairly be called absolute certainty, namely, that 
mere matter is incapable of contriving, inventing, thinking, or 
knowing. We see it change position when associated with or 
controlled by something that we call force, and of which we 
know nothing further than that it is capable of compelling 
matter to change position; and we see two or more portions 
of it change their relative positions and take up new posi- 
tions in which they can cooperate with each other to produce 
certain results, when associated with or controlled by some- 
thing which we call mind, and which we distinguish from 
force by its ability to form designs for the accomplishment 
of various specific results and to compel matter to readjust 
itself so as to carry them into execution. Hence, when we see 
matter arrange itself into the complicated structures above 
described, and for the definite purposes clearly indicated by 
the results affected by those structures, we know that both 
matter and force have been acting, in these particular in- 
stances, under the control and guidance of mind. Any per- 
son who challenges the correctness of this conclusion will find 
himself not only obliged to contradict the unanimous experi- 
ence and judgment of mankind, but also to destroy the basis 
of his own reasoning by denying the authority of reason. The 
inevitable conclusion is therefore that these gland-structures 



THE GLANDS 131 

were brought into existence by the forces of nature, acting 
under the guidance and control of mind. Within the range 
of human knowledge and experience, such things do not hap- 
pen by chance, but only by design. 

Suppose that a person possessing unlimited financial 
means and a knowledge of all the science of the world should 
undertake to manufacture any one of the substances above 
referred to, for example, hair-oil, from animal blood; how 
would he go about it ? Science knows no process by which it- 
can be done; and he would not be able even to form a pre- 
liminary plan of his proposed factory. Suppose, further, that 
he should be required to construct his factory itself from ma- 
terials derived from animal blood; how impossible would be 
his task ! And yet, that is exactly what has been done in the 
animal body. The secret is in the construction of the factory 
— a little gland whose dimensions are often so small that a 
microscope is required to make it visible. Its machinery 
must be of exquisite perfection; it would seem that the acci- 
dental displacement of a single molecule would throw it 
hopelessly out of gear. But near it is another chemical-fac- 
tory, of similar dimensions but of different construction and 
equipment, for it is designed to manufacture from the same 
blood a substance totally unlike hair-oil — not even oil at all. 

Scientific writers pass over these amazing things with ex- 
asperating nonchalance; they seem to think that when they 
call a chemical-factory a "gland," and tell us what it manu- 
factures, no further explanation is necessar}^. But that is no 
explanation at all; it leaves the difficulty untouched. What 
we desire to know is, how that particular gland became con- 
structed and equipped to manufacture precisely the complex 
and peculiar substance needed at that particular spot; and 
how, at another spot where a different substance is needed, a 
gland is always found constructed and adapted to manufac- 



132 THE GLANDS 

ture that other very different substance. The scientist person- 
ally knows no more about the construction and operation of 
that machinery than does the dog, the horse, or the ignorant 
savage in whose body it exists. When we state that we know 
the location of the several glands, their external appearance 
as seen through the microscope, their connection with nerves 
and minute blood-vessels, the different products which they 
secrete, and some of the uses that man and nature make of 
these products, we state everything that is known about 
glands, and probably all that ever will be known. 

An invention or discovery — oleo-margarin — made by a 
scientist about forty years ago, affords an excellent illustration 
of the processes of nature and the intelligence and skill re- 
quired to imitate them. The second empire was then at the 
height of its glory; and the empress, Eugenie, desiring to 
confirm it in the affections of the people, gave her personal 
attention to the food-supply of the poor. Visiting their 
humble kitchens for purposes of investigation, she found that 
they were interdicted from the use of butter by reason of 
its scarcity — could not some substitute be discovered or in- 
vented which would take the place of butter in the dwellings 
of the poor? She sent for a distinguished physiologist, M. 
Bjpoiite Mege, and communicated to him her idea. He 
thought that the project might be feasible ; and she instructed 
him to make the attempt, at her expense, and placed under 
his control one of the imperial farms, on which were several 
hundred cows, in order that he might discover how they pro- 
duced their butter, and, if possible, imitate the process. After 
a year of investigation and experiment, he came to the con- 
clusion that the cow manufactured her butter from her fat, 
and that it was possible that the process might be substan- 
tially reproduced by artificial means. Analyzing cow's fat 
and milk, he found that the former was composed of three 



THE GLANDS 133 

oils, oleine, margarin and stearine, and that milk was com- 
posed of the same relative proportions of oleine and margarin, 
with a certain proportion of casein (the element that enables 
milk to make cheese) and with a trace of butyric acid (the 
element that gives butter its peculiar flavor) and a consid- 
erable quantity of water, which is unnecessary to the produc- 
tion of butter. He therefore concluded that, as the cow's 
mammary glands evidently separated the stearine from the 
oleine and margarin, his artificial process must begin by mak- 
ing a similar separation. By heating the three oils together 
up to the cow's normal temperature (103° Fahrenheit) and 
then allowing the mixture to cool slowly without disturbance, 
he ascertained that the stearine would become solidified when 
the temperature fell to about 80° Fahrenheit, while the oleine 
and margarin would remain liquid, so that, by simply strain- 
ing the mixture at or about that temperature, a complete sep- 
aration of the stearine from the other two oils would be ef- 
fected. He had now all the elements necessary for making 
butter except the coagulating casein and the flavoring butyric 
acid. Science did not know how to produce these substances, 
and does not yet know : but the cow did it, and so he turned 
again to her for information. After much study, he con- 
cluded that she produces those two substances somehow dur- 
ing the digestion of her food in the stomach and sends them 
directly to the mammary glands, where they join the oleine 
and margarin after the stearine has been separated out. 
Here was a grave difficulty — art could not produce the two 
substances, and butter could not be made without them. At 
last it occurred to him that, by taking that part of a calf's 
stomach called the rennet, which is used in the manufac- 
ture of cheese, and subjecting the oleine and margarin oils 
to its action, he might possibly get the solidifying and flavor- 
ing effects which he desired. The experiment succeeded ; and 



134 THE GLANDS 

from that time the public has been supplied with cheap and 
wholesome butter, of precisely the same chemical composi- 
tion as natural butter and in every respect as good when 
made with proper care. A few years afterward, another 
French savant simplified and further cheapened the process 
by omitting the rennet, adding to the oleine and margarin 
about ten per cent of cow's milk, and churning them up to- 
gether. Never did science achieve a greater triumph than in 
the production of oleo-margarin butter. 

But, for us, the conspicuous lesson to be learned from 
Professor Mege's discovery or invention is, that science, with 
its resources, and with the utmost effort, was utterly unable 
to produce the chemical substances which are required for the 
manufacture of butter. It cannot make an ounce of fat, or of 
casein, or of butyric acid. The cow makes all of them, but 
without knowing how, or even that they are made. She 
makes them because the Creator has given her the machinery 
for making them, and obliged her to use it. Of the construc- 
tion and mode of operation of the mammary glands, or any 
of the fifteen or twenty million glands in our own bodies, we 
are as ignorant as the cow is. Science cannot make, artific- 
ially, a single one of their products. Its only boast is, that it 
has discovered that they are made, somehow, through the 
action of what we call glands. And yet some persons who call 
themselves scientists have the temerity to sit in judgment upon 
the works of the Creator, and even to question His existence ! 

There are about fourteen hundred sweat-glands to each 
square inch of the human body — so that the total number 
reaches several millions in a man of average size. The num- 
ber of oil-glands is approximately as great. All the«e glands 
are entirely independent of each other — no one propagates 
its species, but each is constructed separately. There is no 
evidence that they "have, been formed by the variation of 



THE GLANDS 135 

preexisting structures, o-r that there were any preexisting- 
structures to vary. It is, therefore, evident that the Dar- 
winian Theory affords no explanation of their origin. 

Scientific treatises inform us that physical matter is com- 
posed of molecules each of which is not larger than one 
1,250,000 of an inch in any of its dimensions; and that each 
molecule is composed of atoms a thousand times as small 
as itself. It follows that a gland one one-hundredth of an 
inch in dimensions contains nearly two trillions of molecules, 
or two quadrillions of atoms, of the various elements of 
physical matter. The complexity of structure in these mole- 
cules and atoms transcends the power of the imagination to 
conceive. In a lecture before the science department of 
Columbia University, October 23, 1907, Professor Ernest 
Fox Nichols, of that university, 1 attempts to convey some 
faint idea of it in the following words: 

"The extreme complexity of the material atom is strikingly 
shown by the light from incandescent gases and vapors. 
When examined by the spectroscope the single element iron 
exhibits hundreds of definitely placed bright lines in the vis- 
ible spectrum alone, which means the iron atom must be ca- 
pable of vibrating in hundreds of different periods. No single 
atom need be vibrating in all these ways at the same instant, 
but if all iron atoms are alike, and we have every reason to 
believe they are, whether shining on earth or in the stars, 
then every atom of iron must be capable of swinging or 
bounding, revolving or shuddering, or doing something in all 
these ways. 

"Before the evidence of the spectroscope the older idea of 
the atom as a simple structureless body falls to the ground. 
The complexity of a grand piano seems simple in comparison 
with the iron atom. But spectroscopic evidence does not end 

1 Now President of Dartmouth College. 



136 THE GLANDS 

here, but indicates what it is in the atom which does some- 
thing and how it does it. 

"Ten years ago Professor Zeeman placed a sodium flame 
between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet and examined 
its light by the spectroscope. He observed the most striking 
and peculiar effects of the magnetic force on the character of 
the light. The time is too far gone to permit a description 
of what the effects were, but the light sent out by the flame 
showed exactly the characteristics which magnetic force would 
produce, provided the light came from atoms inside which 
minute electric charges were rapidly revolving. It was even 
possible to compute the ratio of charge to mass for these re- 
volving mites. The ratio revealed was that previously ob- 
tained for the cathode particle. . . . 

"It had long been known that hints about the internal 
fabric of the atom would be most effectively sought with the 
spectroscope, but we have here gained at a single bound the 
most amazing insight into a most complex system." 

When we reflect that each gland contains quadrillions 
of these infinitesimal atoms and molecules, not of iron alone, 
but of every substance that enters into the animal body, I 
think that no person possessing even the rudiments of rea- 
son can doubt that it required intelligence to arrange these 
billions of molecules, at a spot where hair-oil is needed, in 
such relation to each other that they would cooperate to 
manufacture hair-oil from the animal's blood; in another 
spot, where bile is needed, to arrange them in such relation 
that from the same blood they would manufacture bile: in a 
third spot, to arrange them so that from the same blood they 
would produce gastric juice; and so on for all the various 
substances elaborated from the blood by glands; and never 
to make any mistake about it! How did that superhuman 
intelligence discover that when arranged in a certain rela- 



THE GLANDS 137 

tion they would produce one of these substances, in another 
relation, another, in a third, another, and so on through the 
entire list? How did it contrive to compel them to assume 
the exact relation required at each spot to produce the par- 
ticular product there wanted? It is idle to prate of evolution 
as having anything to do with it; for no known law of evolu- 
tion has the slightest relevancy to the facts. There is but 
one explanation conceivable to my mind, and that is that, in 
the beginning of things, the Creator established laws which 
constrained the physical forces to build a universe, and the 
life force, acting in conjunction with the physical forces, to 
people it with the forms which have since inhabited it. In 
this view, the countless atoms and molecules that constitute 
the living body assume their respective positions and rela- 
tions in obedience to a law that is "deeper and more far- 
reaching than the laws of evolution" — a law that is not de- 
pendent upon the action of the environment, not enforced by 
natural selection, and not limited to the modification of pre- 
existing structures. Unless we assume the existence of such 
a law, breathed into the living being with the life-force it- 
self, there is no escape from the miracle of the special crea- 
tion of each gland; for they exist, exhibit conclusive proofs 
of creative intelligence, and cannot be accounted for on any 
other theory. 

Closely analogous to the gland in function, though not 
in structure, are the bone forming cells (1) of the periosteum 
(2) and endosteum (3), by which the bones of the skeleton 
are constructed. To render their action intelligible to the 
ordinary reader, it will first be necessary briefly to describe 
the structure of a bone; and I will take for illustrative pur- 

1 These cells are called osteoblasts. 

2 Peri, around, and osteum, bone. 
*Endon, within, and ostewm. 



138 THE GLANDS 

poses the thigh bone (femur) of the human being. This 
bone is tubular in form, with enlarged solid or closed ends 
adapted to articulate with, the bones immediately above and 
below it; and its central cavity is filled with marrow. The 
periosteum is a layer of cellular substance surrounding the 
bone except at its ends; and the endosteum is a layer of 
similar substance lining the central cavity. The bone is ex- 
ceedingly hard in the immediate neighborhood of the perios- 
teum and endosteum, but in other regions is of less density 
and hardness. To the naked eye, the walls of the hollow 
structure appear to be absolutely solid, but under the micro- 
scope, innumerable minute passages are seen, extending from 
the outer surface into or through the substance of the bone. 
Some of these passages are occupied with blood-vessels or 
lymphatics connecting with the general circulation, and 
into others the periosteum has sent .minute fibres of its own 
substance. Minute arteries and veins also extend into or 
through the terminal enlargements of the bone and connect 
with the general circulatory system. Fully completed bone 
consists of organic matter (about 31 parts) and inorganic 
matter (about 69 parts, of which five-sixths are phosphate 
of lime). 

In the early stages of embryonic development, the future 
skeleton is represented by a temporary structure composed 
of cartilage. The latter is made up of cartilage-cells em- 
bedded in a soft material termed the matrix, and is conse- 
quently weak, yielding easily to pressure, and totally unfit to 
perform the functions of a supporting skeleton. Nature there- 
fore makes arrangements for exchanging the temporary carti- 
lage for some firm substance capable of sustaining the weight 
of the body, holding its organs in their proper relative posi- 
tions, and protecting from injury such of them (for example, 
the brain, heart and lungs) as would be most seriously af- 



THE GLANDS 139 

fected by any accidental pressure or contusion. The work 
of exchanging temporary and yielding cartilage for per- 
manent and rigid bone is performed in the manner which 
will now be described. 

As if to prepare for the coming operation and to facili- 
tate its performance, the cartilage cells increase in size and 
arrange themselves in parallel rows, whilst the matter in- 
creases in quantity and pushes the parallel rows further 
apart. Millions of bone-forming cells called osteoblasts 
(created by some unknown means from the blood or lymph) 
now take their position on the surface of the cartilage, en- 
veloping it as with a sheath (except at the places where the 
joints are to appear, which places they leave undisturbed) ; 
and many of them follow the blood and lymph into the in- 
terior of the cartilage, where they station themselves along 
the margins of the blood and lymph streams. Each of these 
little cells is an accomplished chemist and a practical stone- 
mason. As a chemist, it is able to detect any earthy miner- 
als, such as phosphate of lime, carbonate of lime, fluoride of 
lime, chloride of sodium, or phosphate of magnesium, that 
may be borne along by the stream, and to separate them from 
the moving liquid, and employ them for the manufacture of 
bone; whilst, as a stone-mason, it takes the hard material, 
and builds it up into solid walls by laying one piece on an- 
other as the bricklayer builds up the walls of a house. The 
workmen at the surface of the cartilage thus construct a 
stratum of bone around it, while those in the interior erect 
walls of bone that divide the cartilage into minute masses 
separated from each other and isolated from the sources of 
nutriment, and leave it to wither and perish for want of 
sustenance. 

The cartilage has now become removed, except at the 
ends of the bone, and bony matter has taken its place, oc- 



140 



THE GLANDS 



cupying the entire space enclosed within the surrounding 
periosteum. And now a corps of assistant cells appears on 
the ground — larger cells, and of a different form, called 
osteoclasts — whose business is not to form bone, but to de- 
stroy it. They proceed to excavate the central region of the 
bone in order to hollow out a large chamber to receive the 
marrow. This chamber extends from one end-cartilage to 
the other, and converts the bone into a tube with its ends 
closed. Bone-forming cells (osteoblasts) now resume their 
work, this time along the walls of the central chamber, 
which they solidify and strengthen as they before solidified 
and strengthened the outer walls of the bone. Some of the 
osteoclasts work their way through this hard stratum, and 
proceed to bore holes through the walls already erected by the 
osteoblasts in the region between the two hard strata. These 
holes allow of communication between the minute spaces 
(areolae and lacunae) enclosed by said walls, and in these 
lines of communication blood-vessels and lymphatic-vessels 
make their appearance and connect with the general circula- 
tion. 

Around the bone thus formed, the periosteum continues 
to build up the hard structure until it has attained the thick- 
ness and strength necessary for adult life. The cartilaginous 
ends of the bone are gradually pushed further and further 
apart by the deposit of new bone behind them, and are par- 
tially absorbed or destroyed, leaving only a thin coating of 
cartilage on the ends of the bone. 

The flat non-tubular bones, such as the shoulder blades 
and ileum, are built up in a somewhat different manner. In- 
stead of cartilage, a membranous tissue marks the place of 
the future bone. Osteoblasts develop the surface of the 
membrane into a periosteum, and the connective fibres into 
bone, and continue their work by adding fresh layers of bone 



THE GLANDS 141 

until the structure has attained the required thickness and 
strength. Osteoclasts are not employed in the construction 
of these flat bones, which have no marrow-chamber. 

The process employed by nature in forming the bones 
of the skeleton has become known through innumerable post- 
mortem examinations of the human foetus in all stages of 
its development, and of infants in whom the metamorphosis 
of cartilage into bone had not been completed before their 
death. Every step of the process has been studied and veri- 
fied again and again, and a full description of them all can 
be found in the standard works on physiology and anatomy. 
See, for example, Gray's Anatomy, pp. 44 to 47, and Kirk's 
Handbook of Physiology, pp. 48, 49. 

Nothing could demonstrate more plainly and unmistak- 
ably the action of creative design than does the human skele- 
ton. Its history is not the history of a growth, but of a con- 
secutive series of separate and independent acts of construc- 
tion. Growth does not suffice to explain the sequence of 
events that we there witness. First, there is formed, by the 
usual process of growth and development, the temporary 
model of a skeleton, composed, in parts, of cartilage, and, 
in other and separate parts, of membrane. This model is 
evidently for the purpose of determining the relative arrange- 
ment and specific forms of the future bones; holding their 
place until they should appear, and serving meanwhile as 
a partial support for the softer surrounding tissues while the 
latter are forming. Next, the temporary structure is dis- 
carded and a permanent structure of hard bone takes its 
place — takes that place not by a process of growth from the 
preceding structure, but by an act of substitution. In fos- 
silization, we behold dead wood or bone transformed in water 
into stone by electric action, which slowly effects the ex- 
change, atom by atom, or molecule by molecule. Nature 



142 THE GLANDS 

employs no such method when transforming living cartilage 
or membrane into living bone; but she summons an army of 
osteoblasts to do the work of exchanging the old substance 
for the new, and then an army of osteoclasts to bore out cer- 
tain of the new bones to fit them for their future office 
This is not a process of growth, but a process of construc- 
tion. Nature here takes a flying leap from one process to an- 
other — abandoning the old method and creating and adopt- 
ing a new one. This break in continuity cannot be accounted 
for on any theory of evolution. It is an abrupt change from 
an old form to a new form — a change not brought about by 
successive slight modifications of the original form, but by 
the introduction of a new principle of construction. The 
evolutionist endeavors to account for the conversion of the 
reptile into the mammal by assuming it to have been the 
result of slight modifications of the reptilian form succeed- 
ing one another for thousands of years until the transforma- 
tion was finally completed. That theory sounded plausible, 
in the absence of more definite information. But here, in 
the human skeleton, a transformation is effected that is quite 
as remarkable; and we see, and therefore know, that it is 
caused by the action of millions of little osteoblasts and osteo- 
clasts, which nature sets at work for the purpose. How can 
anybody be sure that the metamorphosis of reptile into mam- 
mal was not effected by analogous means? 

It is surely unnecessary to spend much time in arguing 
that the operations of the osteoblasts and osteoclasts can be 
accounted for on no other theory than that of their guidance 
by a great creative intelligence. It cannot be assumed that 
they are rational thinking creatures, familiar with the Crea- 
tor's predetermined plans, and intelligently devoting their 
brief existence to the work of carrying those plans into effect. 
It cannot be assumed that the osteoblasts understand why the 



THE GLANDS l43 

periosteum is not to be extended over the end-cartilages at 
the joints; nor that the osteoclasts (who work inside of the 
bone) understand the purpose of the chambers and passages 
which they are excavating, and therefore know the necessary 
dimensions and direction which those chambers and passages 
must have. It cannot even be conceived that they work in- 
telligently at all, but only that they do their work in obe- 
dience to a blind impulse which they are powerless to resist. 
But there is a guiding intelligence somewhere, which con- 
trols and directs all their operations. The marks of design 
are apparent throughout. 

Darwin's evolutionary hypothesis is absolutely unable to 
account for the osteoblasts and osteoclasts, or for the aston- 
ishing intelligence by which they are obviously directed. The 
osteoblasts are wanted, to make bone, and the osteoclasts are 
wanted, to destroy bone; and they appear where they are 
wanted, armed with these inexplicably opposite powers — - 
that is all that science knows of them, or ever will know, 
except that each of them is composed of thousands of mole- 
cules organized in the osteoblasts in such a manner as to 
enable them to make bone, and in the osteoclasts in such a 
manner as to enable them to destroy bone. What is the mode 
of organization necessary for either purpose, is wholly un- 
known and undoubtedly unknowable to man. 

Only one conclusion is possible from these facts; and 
that is, that the Designer who controls the forces of nature 
and employs them to execute His designs, planned the mar- 
row-bones and the flat bones in advance of their construction, 
and, in doing so, exercised a deliberate choice of expedients 
adapted to His two different plans. Who directed the bone- 
destroyers to the marrow-bones, and forbade their access 
to the flat bones? Who told them what chambers and pas- 
sages to hollow out? Who prohibited them from exercising 



144 THE GLANDS 

their destructive powers any further than was necessary for 
the completion of their specified work? Their nature and 
function being to destroy bone, why do they not go on with 
the work of destruction till there is no more bone left? It 
is as clear as day that the whole thing is under the direction 
of intelligence, and along the lines of a predetermined plan. 

The fact that what happens in thus forming the bones 
of man, happens in forming the bones of all the other mil- 
lions of mammalian animals in the world, shows that chance 
has nothing to do with it. Nor is any blind force of evolu- 
tion able to account for it. When one attempts to apply 
Darwin's theory of evolution to the osteoclasts, the effort 
totally breaks down; for there were no pre-existing struc- 
tures from which to produce them by the process of modifi- 
cation; no environment conceivably capable of modifying 
such hypothetically-necessary preceding structures ; and there 
is no theory upon which we can account for their disappear- 
ance when their work is completed. All that is known about 
them has already been stated. They did not appear in the 
body until hollow bones were wanted; then they appeared, 
performed their work, and disappeared. 

This brings me to a further general reflection concerning 
the Darwinian theory. While that theory appears measur- 
ably to account for the external modifications of the body as 
a whole, it does not explain modifications of its internal 
parts. There is no conceivable explanation of how a cell or 
gland constructed to perform one function can become modi- 
fied so as to perform another and very different function. 
All such things as these are left in the dark. 



CHAPTER XL 
The Human Skeleton. 

Paley, in his Natural Theology, has admirably discussed 
the structure of the skeleton, calling attention to the many 
evidences of intelligent contrivance and adaptation displayed 
in its plan and construction. Eecommending the reader to 
familiarize himself with Paley's argument, I shall, however, 
adhere to my original plan of confining this discussion to 
those matters in which the proof of creative design is as 
unanswerable as a mathematical demonstration. 

And here I may be allowed to remark that whilst, for 
solving mathematical questions, demonstration is the highest 
conceivable order of proof, yet, for solving many other ques- 
tions, there is an order of proof equally as high. In the last 
analysis, all proof, whether mathematical or not, is based 
solely upon reason and universal observation and experience. 
Hence while, from the nature of the subject, mathematical 
demonstration cannot be employed to prove the existence of 
creative design, yet (and also from the nature of the sub- 
ject) creative design may, in many cases, be proved with 
absolute certainty. For example, if I should discover float- 
ing about on the water an artistically-constructed boat 
equipped with masts, sails, rudder and seats, its inherent 
proof of design could not be overthrown or even weakened 
by all the evidence and scientific theories in the world. It 
would be as easy to make an intelligent being believe that 
2 plus 2 equals 5, as to convince him that such a structure 
came into existence by chance or by "spontaneous genera- 
tion/* 

145 



146 THE HUMAN SKELETON 

We have already considered many instances in which the 
proof of creative design is as clear and unanswerable as it 
would be in the case of the boat. That is to say, we have 
seen the existence of an intelligent Creator proved by evi- 
dence that has a convincing force equal to that of a mathe- 
matical demonstration. After such proof, to disbelieve, 
question, or doubt, His existence would be simply self-stul- 
tification; insanity itself, or complete mental imbecility, 
could go no further. 

The human skeleton presents numerous details of con- 
struction in which the evidence of creative design cannot 
fail to be conclusive to any reasoning mind. The cranium, 
or brain-case of the skeleton, exhibits one of them. The cra- 
nium, a thin, marrowless bony structure, is composed of an 
inner and outer layer (termed tables) connected by spongy 
osseous tissue. The outer layer is hard and tough; the in- 
ner layer (called the vitreous table) is thinner, denser and 
more brittle than the outer layer or table. The domelike top 
of the skull is the best possible form of resisting external 
pressure; and it is made up of several parts, divided from 
each other along irregular lines called sutures, in which 
there is interposed between the naked edges of bone a thin 
strip of elastic membrane. This mode of construction, 
that is to say, making the skull in several parts divided from 
one another by thin lines of elastic substance, is admirably 
adapted to allow the brain and skull to increase in size dur- 
ing the period of youth, besides protecting both, so far as 
practicable, from injurious shocks and jars. 

1. But it is to the peculiar formation of the edges of these 
several bony parts that I wish to invite particular attention; 
for the proximate edges of the outer tables are formed by rows 
of closely interlocking saw teeth, as shown in the cut. No 
man can look at this peculiarity of structure without being 



THE HUMAN SKELETON 



147 



impressed with the conviction of its obvious design. Even 
if he did not know that it has been for ages a common ex- 
pedient in carpentry and masonry, he could not fail instantly 
to see its significance in the skull. In the animal system, 
there are no other joints constructed on the same mechanical 
principle, and no other occasion for any such construction. 
But here, in this box, is enclosed the most important organ 
of the body, a soft and exceedingly delicate organ in which 
the displacement or injury of a single microscopic cell might 
work irretrievable ruin to the entire physical organization: 




A 
B 



Coronal Suture 
Parietal Su ture 



Fig. 10. Side view of cranium. 

and to complicate the problem of construction, the walls of 
the box must be made thin ( 1 ), and of several pieces not so 
rigidly joined together as to interfere with the growth of 
the brain, and not so loosely joined together as to be liable 
to accidental dislocation. Moreover, it was inevitable that 
the box should occasionally be subjected to violent strains. 



1 The average thickness of the skull is about one-fifth of an inch. 



148 



THE HUMAN SKELETON 



In all animals that stand erect, its position, at the upper end 
of the body, exposes it to accidental contusions, and to a 
violent blow in case the animal should stumble or be thrown 
down. All these things had to be considered, and a con- 
struction contrived that would reduce the danger of fatal 
accident to a minimum. The construction that was adopted 
has been found to answer its various purposes admirably. 




Fig. 10A. Top view of cranium. 

It is seldom that the brain is severely injured except in cases 
where the tables of the skull are crushed or broken and 
driven inward against it. The arched shape of the skull, 
the elastic scalp that covers it, and the connecting membrane 
at the sutures, prevent the several pieces from lateral (that 
is, inward or outward) displacement, and the interlocking 



THE HUMAN SKELETON 149 

serrations render it impossible that one piece should slip 
lengthwise upon another. 

Now, the existence of these serrations or saw-teeth can- 
not be accounted for on any theory of evolution. We see 
by examination of the other bony structures of the skeleton, 
that bone does not naturally tend to form its edges with saw- 
teeth, but, on the contrary, to form them smooth and regular. 
Here, then, in the skull, is an exceptional case of bone forma- 
tion — a case which opposes a known law of nature. In this 
fact, Darwin's fundamental hypothesis of progressive modifi- 
cation encounters an insuperable obstacle. For, if these 
skull-bones had originally been formed with smooth edges, 
like the other bones of the skeleton, they would, in obedience 
to the general law, have remained smooth ; and if they were 
originally formed with serrated edges, the serrations, being a 
totally new feature in bone-construction, were not due to evo- 
lution or progressive modification, but to creative design, as 
their highly-artificial construction indicates. In either event, 
the first appearance of these interlocking: saw-teeth can be 
accounted for only on the hypothesis that nature took a fly- 
ing leap from the old to the new — a hypothesis which is ab- 
solutely fatal to the universal applicability of Darwin's 
Theory of Evolution; for it plainly implies the existence of 
some unknown cause, "deeper and more far-reaching than the 
laws of Evolution," and able to overrule a law of nature by 
directing an exceptional construction in the case of the skull- 
bones. The obvious utility of this exceptional construction 
in the place where it occurs cannot fail to impress the mind 
strongly with the idea that it was formed by design. In fact, 
in exploring the works of nature, that idea forces itself upon 
us so often that when scientific writers in the different de- 
partments of biology inadvertently make use of expressions 
indicating that such and such an organ, form, or plan of 



150 THE HUMAN SKELETON 

construction, was for such and such a purpose, we accept the 
statement as obvious fact, without even thinking of its bear- 
ing upon theology — which/ in most instances, is undoubtedly 
true of the writers themselves. 

2. Further examining the serrations of the cranial bones, 
we find that they occur only in the outer tables, composed 
of compact, tough material — never in the inner tables, thin- 
ner and composed of brittle and frangible bone, nor in the 
spongy material between the two tables. The inner tables 
are formed with smooth regular edges. Now, why this dif- 
ference between the outer and inner layers of the same hone? 
A moment's consideration not only supplies the answer, but 
forces still more strongly upon us the idea of creative design. 
The inner table is too brittle and thin and the intervening 
spongy material too weak, to support such serrations. If 
formed upon the inner layers, they would prove an element 
of danger rather than of safety; for if they should crumble 
or break, their fragments would be liable to penetrate the 
brain and cause irremediable mischief. Cases have hap- 
pened in which a blow delivered against the skull has left 
the outer table unharmed but has fractured the inner table, 
depressing and driving inward portions of it ( 1 ). 

3. Another plain indication of design in the construc- 
tion of the skeleton, is seen in the way in which the liga- 
ments (and some of the tendons) are attached directly to 
the bones — that is, not their mere attachment to the bones, 
but the method by which it is effected. The ligaments and 
tendons are of enormous tensile strength, able to resist the 
severe strains to which they are necessarily subjected in the 
acts of running, jumping, and lifting; and they require a 
proportionately strong attachment. The muscles are as a 
rule, fastened to the surface of the bones, to the enveloping 

1 Gray's Anatomy, p. 150. 



THE HUMAN SKELETON 151 

periosteum, or even in some cases to the connecting cartilage. 
But no such union will answer for the ligaments — and ac- 
cordingly we find their end-fibres separated from each other 
and inserted deeply within the very substance of the bone 
itself, from which it is impossible to detach them except with 
the knife. When Eavaillac was drawn and quartered for the 
murder of Henry IV, it is related that the power of four 
horses was unavailing to detach the limbs until after the 
ligaments had been cut. The engineers who construct sus- 
pension bridges sink the ends of their cables deep in the 
ground, fasten them to heavy weights, and load the weights 
with a superincumbent mass of iron, stone and earth, in 
order to secure a firm anchorage of the cables. This is 
practically parallel to the means which nature employs to 
anchor the connecting ligaments to the bones on either side 
of a movable joint. The courts call such things inventions 
vvhen found in the works of man; is the evidence of design 
less conclusive when they are found in the works of nature? 

4. The problem of supporting the head upon the upper 
end of the vertebral column in such manner .as to permit it 
to be partially revolved on its supporting axis and to be 
rocked so as to turn the face upward or downward at any 
phase of its revolution, without producing the slightest in- 
jury to the soft and delicate substance of the spinal cord or 
any disturbance of its working connection to the brain, was, 
indeed, a difficult one; but how perfectly, and with what 
wonderful ingenuity, it was solved ! 

The horizontal or rotatory motion, and the vertical or 
rocking motion, each limited to about one-third of a circle, 
are brought about by means of two joints, namely, one (for 
the rotary movement), depending upon the turning of the 
first vertebra (atlas) upon the second or next lower vertebra 
(axis), and the other (for the rocking or nodding move- 



152 THE HUMAN SKELETON 

ment) depending upon the rocking of the skull upon the 
upper vertebra (atlas), upon which the base of the skull 
(the occipital bone) rests. The mechanical principle is a 
familiar one in the arts, being found in the swiveled gun, the 
rotary lifting-crane, the gimbal joint, etc. It proves the 
exercise of intelligent contrivance as positively as it is possible 
to prove such a thing. Its embodiment in a practically 
operative structure could not happen by chance, and cannot 
be intelligibly accounted for on any theory of evolution. 

In the joint between the axis and atlas, upon which the 
head swings like a gate upon its hinges, the actual construc- 
tion of a door-hinge is closely represented. There is the 
supporting lower member with its upwardly-projecting pintle. 
This part is incapable of rotation, being fixed to the jamb 
or door-post (the vertebral column). Then there is the ro- 
tary member of the hinge, attached to, and turning with 
the door (the head). This part is perforated to form a 
socket into which the pintle extends. But the door (head) 
might swing too far on its hinge, and damage result. To 
prevent this, it is provided with "sheets," like the sail of a 
yacht, which limit the extent of its swing in either direction. 
These sheets are two strong ligaments, which, from the re- 
semblance of their action to that of a mechanical contrivance 
called a door-check, have become known as "check liga- 
ments." 

5. A door may be unhinged by lifting it so as to dis- 
connect the socket from the pintle. This would be a serious 
defect in the vertebral hinge, causing many persons acci- 
dentally to "lose their heads" in a more literal sense than 
that in which the expression is figuratively used. But in the 
animal frame, accidents of that kind have been most effect- 
ively guarded against, by the provision of strong ligaments 
which not only connect the axis and atlas together but also 



THE HUMAN SKELETON 153 

securely connect the skull to each of them; and by the 
muscles of the neck, which connect the skull and vertebrae 
to the upper part of the body. The construction is such that 
the skull is practically never dislocated from the atlas, and 
the dislocation of the atlas from the axis can be effected 
only by the application of extreme violence. Yet the move- 
ments of the head are perfectly free, and never produce the 
slightest compression upon the spinal cord, which extends up 
to the brain through all this complicated mechanism. 

6. In this connection, it may be allowable to call atten- 
tion again to the various "annular ligaments" or straps which 
are employed to hold the movable bones or the tendons in 
place at the joints, when under heavy strain. See, for ex- 
ample, the annular ligament at the ankle, which extends 
around the joint and tendons and holds the latter close to 
the skeleton, no matter how severe the strain that may tend 
to force them outward away from it. The ligament and 
tendons are well-lubricated at this point, so that in flexing 
the joint they slip without appreciable friction, and we are 
not even sensible of the presence of the ligament, until dis- 
section reveals it. 

Now, this ligament has no other function than to strap 
down the tendon so that it cannot swing outward in flexing 
the joint. It is, so to speak, a garter under which the ten- 
don plays longitudinally back and forth without friction. 
In a pictorial representation of the anatomy of the wrist, 
where a similar construction occurs, it might be mistaken 
for a garter. 

Can anybody explain to me how any blind "force of 
nature" could plan such a structure? 

7. The construction and combination of the bones of 
the arm furnish conclusive evidences of creative design. 
The upper bone of the arm (the humerus) is articulated to 



154 ME HUMAN SKELETON 

the shoulder-blade by a ball-and-socket joint, which permits 
it to swing in all directions. In the fore-arm, there is a 
long bone (the ulna), which is articulated to the humerus by 
a hinge-joint, that permits it to swing forward. Now, if the 
hand were articulated to the ulna, the construction would 



Fig. 11. Annular Ligament of Wrist. 

be seriously defective by reason of the fact that the ulna 
does not rock, but only swings, on the elbow joint. There- 
fore the hand is articulated to another long bone (the 
radius), which is supported by, and rocks upon, the ulna, 
the two bones being tied together by straps of ligament at 
the wrist and just below the elbow, and by a strong liga- 
mentous membrane between, which does not interfere with 



THE HUMAN SKELETON 



155 



the rocking movement of the radius. Both bones are also 
secured to the humerus by strong ligaments which guard 
the elbow-joint against dislocation. All the joints and bear- 




Fig. 12. Connecting Ligament of Radius and Ulna. 



ings are kept well lubricated. This ingenious combination 
of bones, joints and ligaments was entirely for the benefit 
of the hand, and was designed to give it the admirable fa- 



156 THE HUMAN SKELETON 

cili-ty of movement with which everybody is familiar. He 
who cannot see in it conclusive evidence of intelligent con- 
trivance must be mechanically blind. 

I have not enumerated one-half of the particulars in 
which the skeleton, with its numerous and variously con- 
structed arrangements of bones and ligaments, exhibits con- 
clusive evidence of constructive design. But do we need any 
further proof of it ? Really, it seems idle to pile up cumula- 
tive evidence to satisfy the unreasonable requirements of a 
mind which cannot be convinced by any amount of evidence. 
Take, for instance, the single example of the annular liga- 
ments or straps, such as we find at the ankle, the elbow, the 
wrist, and (in a modified form) in the axis of the neck; what 
more can be wanted to meet the demands of the ultra-evolu- 
tionists? They are utterly unable to furnish any theory or 
argument which can account for the existence of those liga- 
ments. The ligaments could not be formed by the action 
of the parts which they tie together or hold in place; they 
are constructed not by the force of any movement, but to 
oppose movement — to oppose force by force. A gate does 
not construct a pintle and socket upon which to swing; nor 
does a door construct a door-check to prevent it from swing- 
ing open too far, or a stream of liquid flowing in a tube 
construct a check-valve to prevent it from flowing in the 
wrong direction. These are conclusive proofs of constructive 
design. To argue that there is throughout all nature a life- 
force which constrains the cells to build up these structures, 
may be to argue correctly; but that life-force manifests in- 
telligence and the possession of what we call mind, and is 
evidently the Creative force which we worship as God. To 
argue that each living cell has an independent life of its 
own, and that by virtue of that life they are able to cooperate 
with each other, for the building of these structures, is, in 



THE HUMAN SKELETON 157 

the first place, mere speculation and guess-work, and, in the 
second place, assumes for each cell an extent of knowledge, 
constructive skill, and power of organization, far superior 
to that of man himself. There is no reasonable theory but 
that of an intelligent Creator. To assume the existence of 
such a Creator may be, in the language of Haeckel, to as- 
sume a "miracle," — but to assume that these things origi- 
nated without a creator is to assume an unlimited number of 
miracles. A miracle is something contrary to, or inconsistent 
with, the laws of nature. Now, as an abstract question, we 
do not know, and cannot know, whether the assumed existence 
of God is inconsistent with the laws of nature or not; be- 
cause, so far as we know, the laws of nature have nothing 
to do with the question. But there is a concrete question 
about which we do know something with absolute certainty, 
namely, we know that the existence of a contrivance without 
a contriver would be inconsistent with the laws of nature and 
so absurd as to be even unthinkable. 

"We have found all through the works of nature innum- 
erable instances of contrivance and therefore innumerable 
conclusive proofs of a contriver. We have seen that that 
contriver cannot be the cells or glands, but must be some 
inscrutable intelligence, familiar with the laws of physics 
and chemistry, and the range of whose operations covers, at 
the least, the whole field occupied by nature. That infinite 
Intelligence can be no other than God. The existence of 
God, thus proved conclusively by the works of nature, can- 
not be inconsistent with the laws of nature. The assumed 
non-existence of God can no longer be taken into considera- 
tion; for it is disproved by the laws of nature themselves. 



CHAPTEE XII. 
Evolution and Keproduction. 

Protein, which has never yet been obtained except as a 
product of living bodies, is a complex compound of carbon, 
hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. United with a large pro- 
portion of water, it forms the chief constituent of a sub- 
stance, which, in its primary unmodified state, is known as 
protoplasm, and which science regards as the physical basis 
of life. The bodies of all animals and plants are largely 
composed of it. There can be no reasonable doubt that life 
on earth first made its appearance in a speck or cell of 
protoplasm. 

Living protoplasm is distinguished from non-living things 
by its peculiar methods of growth and reproduction. It 
grows, not by superficial accretion, as crystals grow, but by 
absorbing into its own body the substances which it uses 
as food, and then decomposing them and chemically uniting 
some of their elements with its own. Thus, the method of 
its growth is far more analogous to the process of digestion 
and assimilation than to the process of crystallization. It 
reproduces its species by detaching a portion of itself and 
leaving the detached portion to grow and develop in the man- 
ner above described. All living matter proceeds from pre- 
existing living matter. "The new form takes on the char- 
acters of that from which it arose; exhibits the same power 
of propagating itself by means of an offshoot ; and, sooner or 
later, like its predecessor, ceases to live, and is resolved into 
more highly oxidated compounds of its elements" (Huxley). 

158 



EVOLUTION AND EEPEODUCTION 159 

No forms of matter which are either not living, or have not 
been derived from living matter, exhibit these characteris- 
tics. 

As will readily be seen, the method of reproduction above 
described, necessarily results in multiplying the species by 
geometrical progression. In free cell life, where the suc- 
cessive subdivisions follow one another at short intervals, 
the multiplication is enormous, a single cell producing in a 
few hours, millions of descendants. 

The various kinds of cells differ greatly from each other 
in size and form, some having a diameter of at least one one- 
hundred-and-twenty-fifth of an inch, and some being so 
minute as to be invisible under the highest powers of the 
miscroscope. Several species of these free cells are parasitic, 
taking up their abode in the bodies of the larger animals, 
where some of them produce disease and death, and for that 
reason have become familiarly known to us as "disease 
germs" or "disease microbes." 

One species of free cells, the amoebae, has been made the 
subject of much scientific study and observation because it has 
been considered possible that some member of its family 
may have been the original ancestor of the human race. An 
amoeba is a comparatively large cell, approximating the one- 
hundred-and-twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter — a mere 
speck of soft and slimy protoplasm, but manifesting unmis- 
takable signs of life by feeble pulsations and by pushing out 
temporary projections from its little body and presently 
withdrawing them and pushing out others at a different 
point or points. 

It is able slightly to flex these projections, and thus to 
use them as a means of propelling itself about in the water 
and seeking its own food instead of waiting for the sur- 
rounding water to bring it. It devours a food particle by 



160 



EVOLUTION AND EEPEODUCTION 



enveloping and absorbing it; and if by mistake it happens 
to lay hold of a mineral particle, unfit for food, it soon re- 
leases its prey and resumes its search. 

In the amoeba, or some similar form of cell life, in proc- 
ess of time a change took place — some of the cells began to 
aggregate, in small numbers, into a line or other form, and 
to act together as a unit, surrendering their individual 
freedom for the sake of association and mutual assistance. 
This was a long step forward, resulting in an organized 
animal instead of a mere multiplicity of independent cells. 
The first form in which we recognize this association is the 




Fig. 13. Amoeba. 

gastrula, a tubular arrangement of cells, capable as a whole, 
of feeble locomotion in its native liquid, and suggesting by its 
form and function a diminutive stomach, in which the food 
is received into its interior and digested by absorption. The 
animal is so simple and primitive in its structure that if it 
be turned inside out it goes on with the process of receiving 
and digesting its food just as usual, the inverted stomach 
apparently answering every purpose. 

It is conceivable that, through the operation of Dar- 
win's first law of evolution, a slight variation of form or 
structure may have occurred in one of these little gastrulae. 
If that were the fact in any case, the variation would tend 



EVOLUTION AND KEPKODUCTION 161 

to reappear in the descendants of the modified gastrula, in 
accordance with the natural law of heredity that like tends 
to produce dike. If not adapted to its environment so well 
as the original unmodified gastrula, or if the environment 
became changed so as to be no longer favorable to it, the 
modified form and its descendants would tend to disappear; 
and if in the further lapse of time another slight modifica- 
tion should occur and prove to be better adapted to its sur- 
roundings, it would tend to survive and become the parent 
of a progeny one step higher in the scale of existence than 
were its ancestors. So long as such slight modifications, fol- 
lowed by the survival of the improved forms, continued oc- 
casionally to appear, the evolution of physical being would 
continue to be gradually upward. 

But the tendency to variation, being applicable to the 
modified as well as to the original forms, would inevitably 
result in branch lines, more or less fitted to their environ- 
ments. In some of these, the course would continue up- 
ward; in others, it might be retarded, or perhaps arrested at 
a particular stage of ■ development, beyond which the modi- 
fied structure would never be able to pass, although still 
able to persist; while many of the branch lines would ulti- 
mately succumb to the difficulties of their situation and 
perish from the earth. Such is a brief outline of the early 
stages of animal evolution. So far as above set forth, the 
ascertained facts are in full accordance with Mr. Darwin's 
theory of evolution. 

Many were the changes of form that might conceivably 
be effected in the primitive beings by successive and minute 
cumulative variations, and in strict accordance with Dar- 
win's theory. But somewhere along in the upward course 
of development from cell to gastrula and thence onward to 
other forms, important changes took place, affecting both 



162 EVOLUTION AND REPRODUCTION 

nutrition and reproduction, and difficult to account for on 
Darwin's theory of minute variations. For, the variations 
here were so radical in their character that it is hard to 
understand how they could have been brought about by 
slight cumulative modifications of the preexisting structure. 
The cells gave up their individual function of digesting 
and assimilating food, and, for the future, that function 
was devolved upon a special organ created for the purpose 
and connected with means for conveying the nutritive ele- 
ments of the digested food to all parts of the body, The 
cells likewise gave up, for all future time, their individual 
function of subdividing themselves for purposes of repro- 
duction, and the reproductive function was lodged in a new 
organ, which, acting as the agent of the entire organiza- 
tion, produces a new cell and detaches it for reproductive 
purposes. How the new reproductive cell was formed, and 
how it was able to transmit the parental characteristics to 
succeeding generations, is a mystery that probably never will 
be solved. Mr. Darwin suggested as a possible explanation 
his hypothesis of Pangenesis, in which he assumed that the 
reproductive cell is made up of minute units derived from 
and representing each cell in the parental body. But the 
subject is further complicated by the fact that, both in ani- 
mals and plants, there is a distinct differentiation of sex; 
which is an element to be reckoned with on any theory of 
reproduction, and which requires that the hypothetical units 
of Mr. Darwin's pangenesis shall be derived from the bodies 
of both parents. 

Thus when, in considering the development of animal life, 
we reach the point where the cells gave up their individual 
functions of nutrition and reproduction, and those func- 
tions were taken in hand by special and complex organs, we 



EVOLUTION AND EEPEODUCTION 163 

are obliged to acknowledge that we have reached a point 
where Darwin's theory of development by successive minute 
variations of the original structure ceases to explain the 
facts, and where science surrenders its functions to specula- 
tion and guesswork. It is evident that a cause is at work 
which is deeper and more far reaching than any theory of 
natural evolution is able to explain, and that nature makes 
jumps from one form or structure to another. 

It is remarkable that those jumps are always associated 
with evidences of intelligent design, and that nature, when 
she jumps from one form or structure to another, seems al- 
ways to have a purpose in view. At one time, as when, for 
example, she jumps from the method of individual cell-re- 
production to the method of forming the reproductive cell 
by a special organ representing the entire community of as- 
sociated cells, her purpose is, apparently, to shorten the pas- 
sage from the lower to the higher stages of development. At 
another time, as when she suddenly develops a new lateral bud 
on the tree of life, her purpose seems to be to provide for 
the subsequent creation of a new class of animals or plants. 
When she establishes an elaborate and complicated spinning- 
apparatus in the body of a spider, or arms the snake and the 
bee with an ingenious and an effective weapon for attack and 
defense, her purpose is self-evident. 

Eesuming consideration of the slowly-advancing animal 
race, at the point where it had unaccountably come into pos- 
session of internal reproductive organs for forming and ex- 
truding its reproductive cells, we will, for want of time, 
pass over the many millions of years during which it was 
groping through the fish-form of existence, then through the 
amphibious forms, then through the reptile form, and then, 
by a branch line, to the birds. Many things had happened 



164 



EVOLUTION AND KEPKODUCTION 



in this long interval ;* many organs had appeared in the ani- 
mal body, of the origin of which Darwin's Theory of Evolu- 
tion can give no explanation; many races composed of de- 
scendants from various side-branches had perished from the 
earth; the earth itself had visibly grown old, and had be- 
come a very different world from that in which life first 
appeared. 

Birds were at once distinguished by three marked char- 




Fig. 14. Fossil pterodactyl. 

acteristics: feathered wings, adapted to long flights; thin, 
hollow, marrowless bones, conducing to lightness on the 
wing ; and reproduction by hard-shelled eggs. The wings had 
already been foreshadowed in the membraneous wings of a 
flying reptile (the pterodactyl) whose bones were also hol- 



1 The interval included the Laurentian, Cambrian, Silurian, 
Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassie, and Jurassic periods — 
much more than one-half of the time during which life has existed 
on the earth. 



EVOLUTION AND REPRODUCTION 165 

low; and feathers had made their appearance on another 
half-breed lizard-bird, the archseopteryx. All these and other 
intermediate types between the reptilian and the bird tribes 
proved to be unfitted for a successful struggle for existence, 
disappeared, and are known only from a few fossil remains 
accidentally preserved in the rocks. We have no knowledge 
how long they played their abortive part in Earth's life- 
history — perhaps millions of years, perhaps only thousands 
— but it was long enough, at all events, to effect, through the 
slow methods of evolution, the gradual transformation from 
lizard to bird. What "jumps" nature may have made, to 
hasten the result, we do not know. 

At some period during the transforming process, the re- 
productive eggs began to be enclosed in hard mineral cases 
or shells; — a mode of preserving them that had never been 
adopted before, but which has ever since generically distin- 
guished all birds not only from their relatives, the reptiles, 
but from all vertebrate animals. It is difficult to conceive 
of this sudden and radical change as having been brought 
abDut in any other way than by one of nature's "jumps" and 
for intelligent and wise reasons. All animals whose line of 
ascent ran through the fishes, the amphibians, and the rep- 
tiles, had, for millions and millions of years, invariably, de- 
posited in the water eggs without such a shell. Now, a new 
genus of animals appeared, and suddenly nature decreed for 
it and all its descendants an additional law of reproduction ! 

The bird was to be a land-animal. Its reproductive cell 
was to be deposited on dry land. The cell was to mature 
into a chick by a process of development which would re- 
quire a considerable period of embryonic life. How could 
that life be supported on dry land, and exposed to the at- 
mosphere, during so long a period? Apparently there was 
but one way of doing it, namely, by storing up with the cell 



166 EVOLUTION AND REPRODUCTION 

a plentiful supply of food for use during its embyronic life, 
and enclosing both together in a case or shell sufficiently 
strong and hard to protect them from injury until the shell 
should be no longer needed. This provided perfectly for 
storing the cell and its food together, and for protecting 
them from the attacks of insects; and, for a considerable 
time, it was capable of keeping them safe from atmospheric 
germs. But something more was necessary: first, the life of 
the cell was not active but dormant, and, while in that con- 
dition, it could make no use of the food-supply; and, there- 
fore, secondly, some provision must be made for starting the 
life of the cell into activity. At that juncture nature, by 
some means known only to herself, managed to inform the 
mother bird that what the egg needed to start it into active 
life was the vital temperature of its race. She took the hint, 
sat upon the eggs day after day to warm them into life, and 
at last was rewarded by seeing them burst open their tem- 
porary prison, permitting the occupant to come out and take 
up the routine duties of bird life. 

I am unable to see how Mr. Darwin's Theory of Evolution 
can explain these facts. The first limestone egg-shell cannot 
be accounted for on the hypothesis that it was formed by 
slight variations of a preceding structure, unless a mineral 
shell of some kind be shown to have existed before it. If we 
assume that a thin membrane had previously covered the 
yolk, as in fish-eggs and frog-eggs, we find that membrane 
still present in birds' eggs; so it is evident that it had not 
been converted into a shell. That which requires explanation 
is the hard mineral shell built up over the membrane — how 
did that originate? It was an entirely new departure in egg 
morphology — nature seems to have taken a flymg leap at this 
point. If it be suggested that probably the membrane began 
to act as a gland, depositing upon its exterior surface a coat- 



EVOLUTION AND REPRODUCTION 16? 

ing of limestone; the sufficient answer is, that this is guess- 
work and not science. 

Besides, all fish eggs and reptile eggs must always have 
been covered with a thin membraneous skin sufficiently tough 
to hold their contents together and prevent them from dis- 
solving in water. They are, to this day, invariably and neces- 
sarily provided with such an integument; but it has no 
glandular action. To enable it to build up around the egg 
a thick, hard armor-plating of limestone, the membrane 
would have to be constructed with internal mechanism able 
to extract molecules of calcium carbonate from the materials 
surrounding it and arrange them in regular order around its 
own exterior surface. In other words, the action would be 
a true glandular action, and could no more take place with- 
out gland-mechanism, or cell-mechanism equivalent to it, 
than bone could be formed without the action of a periosteum 
or saliva secreted without the action of a salivary gland. 
Things do not make themselves. 

But the bird's egg does not produce its shell. On the con- 
trary, it is produced by the reproductive organs within the 
parent bird's body; and nature clearly took a flying leap in 
adding to those organs mechanism, before unknown, for in- 
vesting the egg with a hard protective armor. 

And how did the mother-bird, when she discovered that 
her egg was shut up within calcareous prison-walls, get the 
notion that by sitting on it continually for a long time its 
prison-walls would open and release a chick? In the orig- 
inal incubating bird, that concept or expectation could not 
have been suggested by any previous experience or observa- 
tion. And, stranger still, where did the bird get the knowl- 
edge, that, during the tedious process of incubation, the egg 
must be carefully turned over from time to time or trouble 
and disappointment would result? In hatching eggs in an 



168 EVOLUTION AND EEPRODUCTION 

incubator, man has learned this secret by experience; but 
the birds have always known it. With their bill they turn 
over all the eggs in their nest every few hours, and are re- 
warded with a brood of perfect chicks. Man, with his in- 
cubator, has learned that in hatching hens' eggs, for ex- 
ample, unless he turns the eggs once a day during the first 
ten days of incubation, and oftener during the remaining 
period, the chicks will come out maimed or deformed, or will 
perhaps never come out at all; the reason being that as they 
increase in weight they settle down through the soft sub- 
stance of the egg, become attached to the lower part of the 
shell, and their further normal development is interfered 
with or perhaps completely prevented. The inexplicable thing 
in all this is, that the bird knows that the egg must be 
turned, and never fails to attend to it ! By what inspiration 
did she learn to do this ? The practice must have begun with 
the first egg f or there never would have been any more birds ; 
hence it could not have arisen by the processes of evolution. 
Will anybody suggest that she does it through "instinct"? 
Certainly, no ultra-evolutionist will make such a suggestion; 
for we are told in their books that instinct itself is the result 
of evolution, and therefore this attempt at explanation would 
only increase the difficulty. ~No explanation, that I can con- 
ceive of, suffices to account for the bird's "instinct" for 
warming her eggs into life by sitting on them, or for turn- 
ing them over from time to time during the process of in- 
cubation. To my mind, the subject is as inexplicable as the 
origin of life itself. The bird does not do these things by 
chance, nor through any scientific knowledge of the facts, 
nor can we point to evolution as holding the key to the 
mystery. 

Eeturning to the ascending family-line of man, from 
which we have briefly digressed to consider the reproductive 



EVOLUTION AND REPRODUCTION 169 

methods of birds, we come, in the eocene period, to a genus 
(the marsupials, or pouched animals), which is distin- 
guished by a striking peculiarity in its method of caring for 
its young. Animals of this genus (including the oppossum, 
the kangaroo, etc.) are provided by nature with a pouch 
or bag, in which to carry their new-born young until they 
become able to take care of themselves. The maternal nipples 
(then existing for the first time in animals) project into the 
cavity of the bag and can be sucked by the little ones while 
they are carried about in the parental haversack. The bag 
is supported by a couple of bones specially provided for the 
purpose. The young are born in a very imperfect condition, 
after only a month of gestation, and they remain in the bag 
until fully matured, which in the larger kangaroos involves 
a period of nine months after birth. By what initiative the 
two supporting bones began to be formed, or the external 
sack to be prepared to receive the future progeny, no in- 
formation is given by the laws of evolution. But all three 
first made their appearance together, so far as we have any 
knowledge; and they furnish as clear a case of obvious con- 
trivance as it is possible to conceive. 

It will be interesting briefly to compare the two widely 
different developmental methods tested in the birds, on one 
hand, and in the marsupials, on the other hand. One might 
almost fancy that nature was here trying two experiments, to 
ascertain which method was best for her purposes. By the 
one method, the period of gestation was spent in assembling 
a supply of food for the life-germ, and boxing up the germ 
and the food securely together; at the end of which process 
the box, with its contents, was expelled from the body. The 
work of developing the future animal then began, by apply- 
ing to the box the heat of the parent body. At the close of 
this work the chick was sufficiently mature to pick its way 



170 EVOLUTION AND REPKODUCTION 

out of the box; and then, after a week or two of feeding 
and protection, it was ready for its life work. The experi- 
ment was apparently satisfactory, and the reproductive 
method was permanently adopted for the bird tribe. It has 
resulted in accordance with Darwin's laws of modification 
by successive slight variations and the survival of the fittest, 
in peopling the earth with an innumerable family of beau- 
tiful creatures, without whose presence this world would be 
deprived of one of its greatest charms. The other method, 
that of employing a brief period of gestation in partially de- 
veloping the life-germ into an immature animal form, then 
expelling it into a sack or pouch carried by the parent and 
supplied with the necessary food until the embryo is fully 
matured, apparently was not found satisfactory in result, 
although thoroughly tested. Marsupials spread, for a while, 
over every continent on the globe; but they have long since 
died out, leaving extant only a few representatives of their 
race. Darwin's Theory of Evolution undoubtedly accounts 
for their gradual extinction, as it does for the survival of the 
bird tribe. But it does not account for the origin of either 
the bird race or the marsupial race. It does not account for 
the first appearance in nature of the limestone egg-shell, the 
marsupial pouch, or the specially-created bones for the sup- 
port of that pouch. These things manifest in nature evidence 
of design and purpose ; and require for their explanation the 
assumption of some principle deeper and more far-reaching 
than the laws of evolution. 

I have spoken of the birds as originating on a side-branch, 
and not on the main stem by which the animal race was 
slowly ascending toward its ultimate culmination in man. 
Many a side-branch appeared from time to time through the 
long course of ages, arising from lateral buds formed on the 
parent stem but whose origin there cannot be explained on 



EVOLUTION AND REPRODUCTION 171 

Darwin's Theory. Many of the side-races thus begun were 
doomed to ultimate extinction through the inexorable laws 
formulated by Mr. Darwin, and their fossil skeletons are all 
that remain to reveal to us their former existence. But 
many of them have survived, and through the operation of 
the same inexorable laws have peopled the earth with the 
almost innumerable varieties of animal forms now existing. 
Many of these forms, too, have undoubtedly reached the 
highest degree of perfection attainable within the limits of 
their constructive plan. Some of them are useful or beau- 
tiful members of the animal kingdom, but they are not, and 
their descendants never will be, at its head. That distinc- 
tion, nature has reserved exclusively for the being who, 
through all the chances and contingencies of the perilous 
ascent, has stuck persistently to the main stem, and has 
finally reached its topmost pinnacle. 

In her long course toward the final consummation of 
her plan, nature, as we have seen, treated the marsupial 
pouch as only a temporary expedient, to be cast aside when 
the time should come for adopting a more permanent method 
of construction. When the time came, she simply dropped 
the pouch and its supporting framework, and lengthened the 
period of gestation. The animal was now born more fully 
matured ; but it was, as yet, an unfinished organization, cap- 
able of performing only the mere physical functions of a low 
order of quadruped life. The whole period of the long Ter- 
tiary Age, probably several millions of years, was spent in 
slowly modifying and perfecting its structure, and, especially 
in producing a form of skuli and a construction of mental 
equipment which should be adapted to a higher plane of 
existence. Finally, in the fullness of time, and as the per- 
fected successor of the marsupials and all their progeny, 
man came, with his high physical and mental organization 



172 EVOLUTION AND EEPEODUCTION 

qualifying him to take his predestined position at the head 
of nature's animate works. It is worthy of remark that the 
slow growth of his individual development, requiring a period 
of from twenty to twenty-five years in the passage from in- 
fancy to adult life, has been one of nature's most beneficent 
provisions, affording his offspring ample and needful time 
to fit themselves for the duties of life while still under the 
protecting care and guidance of the more experienced 
parental intelligence. Indeed, without this wise provision, 
man would have been seriously handicapped from the be- 
ginning, and in all probability would have remained, till 
long after the present time, only a superior order of wild 
and savage brute. 

Before leaving the subject of man's evolution, rising step 
by step through the long succession of his lower ancestors, 
I desire to call attention to a most remarkable and signifi- 
cant fact indicating the fertility of nature's inventive re- 
sources and the skill with which she is able to devise and 
make use of temporary expedients while carrying forward 
her plans for a more stable and permanent structure : just as 
a mason who plans an arch of brick or stone that will stand 
for ages when its keystone is in place, finds himself obliged 
to support the arch by a temporary scaffolding during the 
final stages of construction, until the keystone has been in- 
serted and the scaffolding removed. Nature's engineering 
problem arose in the following way : she planned a permanent 
animal-structure in which, when finished it was necessary that 
lungs should exist to aerate the blood and furnish the re- 
quired heat ; in the process of the development of that struc- 
ture in the mother's womb, the lungs could not act for want 
of air, but the heart had to act to maintain the circulation 
which carried to all parts of the embryonic body the ma- 



EVOLUTION AND EEPEODUCTION 173 

terials that were necessary for building it up; the lungs had 
to be thus built up, as well as the rest of the body, and to 
be ready for use for breathing purposes at the instant of 
birth; now, how could matters be so arranged that the em- 
bryonic blood should be constantly and thoroughly aerated 
and purified without going through the lungs for that pur- 
pose; that, however, a limited, but sufficient, quantity of 
blood should go to all parts of the lungs to keep up their 
supply of building material; and that, at birth a complete 
air-purification by the infant's lungs should be substituted 
for the provisional arrangement; — this was the problem to 
be solved, and its solution required no small degree of in- 
ventive ingenuity. Nature was equal to the emergency. For 
the constant aeration and purification of the foetal blood, she 
established in the mother's womb during pregnancy a tem- 
porary organ called the placenta, by means of which the foetal 
blood is interchanged with the maternal circulation already 
purified; she formed a provisional opening between the 
chambers of the foetal heart, through which the heart of the 
unborn child keeps up a free and full circulation while send- 
ing to the lungs only the quantity of blood necessary for 
their development; at birth, she severs the connection to the 
placenta, discharges the latter from the parent's body, fills 
the infant lungs with air, and rapidly closes up the tem- 
porary opening between the chambers of its heart. The 
work is now complete. And who can understand its history 
without a feeling that the Creative hand is almost visibly 
displayed in it? The revelation of design could not be more 
conclusive to any thinking mind. 

And through all the stages of man's life-development 
— from the cell to the gastrula; from the gastrula to the 
vertebrate; through the vertebrate to the quadruped, and 



174 EVOLUTION AND EEPKODUCTION 

through the quadruped to man — there runs a wonderful unity 
of coherent design; a plan which cannot be mistaken for the 
occurrence of mere accidental coincidences, but in which 
there are indubitable evidences of constant prevision and of 
preparation for the steps that were to follow, and did follow, 
in their appointed order. 

By these evidences, of which, as we have seen, innumer- 
able examples are found in every department of organic life, 
the thinking man is forced to the conviction that the entire 
scheme of evolution, so far as its working can be seen, is 
under the supervision of an infinite mind, which is able both 
to plan and to execute. There is no other conceivable way 
of accounting for the known facts. 

How the steps which have been called "nature's jumps" 
have been brought about, we have no means of knowing. 
Huxley, Nicholson, and other leading evolutionists, have 
been led by them to suspect the existence of some deeper 
and more far-reaching law of evolution than any discovered 
by Darwin. Perhaps they are correct in this; but it must 
be borne in mind that the existence of one law affords no 
reason for predicating the existence of another. The natural 
tendency to assume that because things are seen to be regu- 
lated by law in some respects they must be in all, is based 
only on our own limited experience and observation, and has 
no application to the Infinite mind which is a law unto itself. 
All that we can say about the undiscovered laws of evolu- 
tion is that we know nothing about them, nor even that any 
exist. Nature has left the origin of life an inscrutable mys- 
tery and she seems also to have left the deepest secrets of its 
embodiment in physical forms an equally impenetrable mys- 
tery. Enough for us to know that she reveals everywhere 
the operation of an infinite creative intelligence. Nothing 



EVOLUTION AND EEPEODUCTION 175 

appears to have happened by chance; everything by design. 
Perhaps we may be told that many useless things may have 
happened by chance and afterwards disappeared because they 
were useless; but that suggestion is mere conjecture, in the 
absence of actual evidence; whereas, obvious contrivance 
needs no evidence to prove that it had a contriver. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Evolution and Design. The Eange of Evolution 

Limited. 

Darwin's theory, as we have seen, endeavors to account, 
on the ground of natural causation, for the evolution of 
all past and present forms of animal and plant life, and to 
explain the causes that have contributed to the deteriora- 
tion, or even the extinction of some of those forms. In at- 
tempting to explain the origin of forms and organs upon the 
assumption that they have resulted from the gradual modifi- 
cation of preexisting forms or organs, it sometimes subjects 
our credulity to a severe strain; as, for example, when it 
tells us that a turtle's legs and a bird's wings and legs have 
all been developed from a fish's fins, and even that our own 
legs and arms have been derived from the same source. Pos- 
sibly, these assumptions may all be true, but there is no real 
proof of it. A hundred thousand years hence, some future 
scientist may stumble upon the buried remains of one of 
Orville Wright's flying-machines, and conclude that it, also, 
bears evidence of a fish ancestry. Undoubtedly, he would 
be able to make out quite a plausible case for his theory. 

When Darwin's Theory undertakes to account for origins, 
upon the hypothesis of the gradual modification of preexist- 
ing forms, it is beset with insuperable difficulties. For ex- 
ample, when the Marsupials grew a pair of strong bones ex- 
tending under the skin from the hips forward along the 
abdomen, to serve as curtain-rods by means of which to sus- 
pend the apron as a sort of bag or pouch in which to carry 
the young, how came these two bones to appear there? No 

176 



EVOLUTION AND DESIGN 177 

bones were there before in four-legged animals, nor ever 
have been in other animals than marsupials. Or if there ever 
were such bones in any now-extinct animals that may have 
existed in the long period between the Age of Eeptiles and 
the Age of Marsupials, they have been wholly obliterated in 
their descendants; thus showing that the forces of evolution 
tend to destroy such bones, not to create them. And how 
came the skin to grow double at that place, so as to provide 
a pouch which could be thus suspended, and which would 
leave the nipples extending into but not through it? And 
how came its forward edge to be unattached, so as to form 
a mouth to the bag ? Evolution can give no answer to these 
questions. Its laws, as explained in Darwin's Theory, are 
utterly antagonistic to the supposition that it can furnish 
any answer to them. It might possibly account for the peli- 
can's pouch by assuming that a habit of temporarily storing 
fish in the rear portion of its mouth had gradually swollen 
out its neck so as to form of it a sort of pouch convenient 
for the purpose; but this explanation is not applicable to the 
marsupial pouch. In fact, nature, by shortening the period 
of gestation, created the necessity for the marsupial pouch, 
and at the same time provided the bag in view of the 
shortened gestation. If the kangaroo had delivered its young 
when they were only an inch or two long, as it now does, 
the race could not have survived in the absence of the pouch 
— indeed would have perished at once ; so that we are justi- 
fied in assuming that the pouch appeared first, or, in other 
words, was created in anticipation of the change of gesta- 
tion, which was contemplated by the author of nature, but 
had not yet been put into effect. 

Of course, the animal had nothing to do with the shorten- 
ing of its period of gestation; had no control over it what- 
ever. Nor had it anything to do with the creation of its 



178 EVOLUTION AND DESIGN 

strange pouch, or the supporting framework of it. There 
is no causative relation between the two things, time of ges- 
tation and pouch, by which either would have caused the 
other, nor any relation between gestation and the . two ex- 
traordinary bones — and no conceivable explanation of the 
facts except that the Author of nature had planned the 
change, and had proceeded intelligently to prepare the way 
for it. 

Again: When Darwin's Theory encounters the osteo- 
blasts and osteoclasts in their work of superseding soft carti- 
lage with hard bone, it meets an obstacle which it can 
neither move, nor get over, nor get around. And, more than 
that, it meets with conclusive proof that nature's processes 
are not continuous, but are sometimes suddenly exchanged 
for processes of an entirely different character. The ex- 
changing of one process for another and different one is not 
evolution, but is an act that unmistakably indicates intelli- 
gent judgment and choice. 

The horse is an animal, the beginning of whose existence 
as a quadruped dates back to the early years of the Eocene 
period or even possibly to the antecedent Cretaceous period. 
Scientific research has collected from the rocks of the Ter- 
tiary and Quaternary Ages a consecutive series of fossil skel- 
etons of the horse, showing its ascending stages of develop- 
ment, from a soft-footed animal, about as large as a me- 
dium-sized dog, to the magnificent race-horse of the present 
day. 1 Nothing could be more impressive to the ordinary 
mind than this exhibit. Taken in connection with the Hip- 
parion, from the Miocene deposits of India,. and the Anchi- 
therium, from the older Miocene beds of Europe, a series 

1 This series of horse skeletons was collected by Professor O. C. 
Marsh from the Tertiary strata of the Rocky Mountain region, and 
is at Yale University. 



EVOLUTION AND DESIGN 179 

of fossils from the American rocks gives us an outline of the 
horse's genealogy so fully and clearly as to leave no room 
for reasonable doubt on the subject. This series, considered 
in its chronological order of development, includes the 
Eoltippus from the oldest Eocene, the Oroliippus, from the 
later Eocene, the Mesoldppus, from the early Miocene, the 
Miohippus, from the later Miocene (coeval with the Euro- 
pean Anchitherium), the Protoliippus, from the later Mio- 
cene (coeval with the East Indian Hipparion), and the 
Plioliippus, from the Pliocene. The fore foot of the Eohip- 
pus shows the second, third, fourth and fifth toes, and a rudi- 
ment of the first; and the hind foot shows the second, third 
and fourth toes, with a trace of the fifth. In the Orohippus, 
the fore foot shows the fifth toe retracted upwards, but still 
probably able to reach the ground ; and the hind foot appears 
with three well-developed toes only. In the Mesohippus, the 
fifth toe is even still more rudimentary. The Protohippus 
has only three well-developed toes. In the Pliohippus, the 
second and fourth toes of the earlier Protohippus have with- 
drawn upward, now appearing as splint-bones, and the third 
toe, terminating in a hoof, closely approximated to the fully 
developed structure of the horse, differing only in the fact 
that in the horse the two splint-bones have retracted slightly 
farther upward. The succession of these anatomical modifi- 
cations is shown in the following cut: 

It will be observed that the earliest representative in this 
development series is missing. There can be no reasonable 
doubt that it existed, back in the preceding chalk-age, at 
the close of the cretaceous period, as a small soft-footed 
animal with five fully-developed toes on each foot. From 
that time onward, it slowly lost four of these toes, com- 
mencing with the first and fifth, which have entirely disap- 
peared, and continuing for a while with the second and 



180 



EVOLUTION AND DESIGN 



fourth, which have withdrawn upward and now appear as 
mere rudiments in the horse, leaving the original third toe 
to perform, unaided, all the functions of a foot. 




Fig. 15. 



A review of the horse's paleontological history makes it 
clear that Darwin's Theory of Evolution is, in part, founded 
on fact, and that, in certain cases at least, the evolution of 
one form from another does take place through slow succes- 
sive slight changes of structure. But it discloses nothing 
that in the slightest degree affects the force of the argument 
from contrivance or design. All the modifications that oc- 
curred in the evolution of the equine foot aud leg, from the 
time of the ancient Eohippus to that of the modern race- 
horses, were losses of old structures, not creations of new — 
and were only changes of mere form and size. The little 
animal was developing into a big one, swift of foot and 
dwelling upon the hard ground; and under such circum- 
stances, its increase in size and weight might be expected to 



EVOLUTION AND DESIGN 181 

effect a gradual change in the form and structure of its feet 
and legs. In such cases as this, Darwin's Theory accords 
both with reason and with observed facts, and indicates only 
evolution. 

Many other illustrations may be cited from the animal 
kingdom, tending to render perfectly clear the distinction 
between those structures which can, and others which can- 
not, be accounted for by the Theory of Evolution. For ex- 
ample, the ocean teems with an inconceivable number of 
minute animacula? that emit phosphorescent light. It is 
easily conceivable that such light may be due to phosphorus 
imbibed from the surrounding sea water. On the other 
hand, the intermittent light flashed at will from the brilliant 
and beautiful fire-fly can be accounted for on no theory of 
evolution. It is apparently of an electric character, although 
destitute of heat, and is produced by mechanism under con- 
trol of the insect's brain. Man would give a great deal to 
know the secret of producing such light, but he has never 
been able to discover it. 

The gymnotus, a species of fish or eel, inhabiting some 
of the inland waters of South America, is provided with an 
electric battery capable of administering a severe electric 
shock to those animals which incautiously come in contact 
with it. How can the origin of such an apparatus be ac- 
counted for on Darwin's Theory? 

On the other hand, the many varieties in size, form, color, 
agility, strength, and other characteristics, which we observe 
in animals of the same species, are generally, although not 
always, 1 referable to evolution. In most cases they are 
undoubtedly due to differences of environment through 
which the ancestral race has passed. And it is to be observed 
that man has evidently had much to do with the evolution 

1 See remarks upon the Ancon sheep, post., p. 229. 



182 EVOLUTION AND DESIGN 

of these varieties; for they are particularly remarkable only 
in the races of animals that have been for ages subject to 
domestication and to direct individual contact with man, 
and especially in those that are adapted to furnish him with 
household pets or constant companions. Wild animals, and 
those of large size, present few of such varieties ; but the dog, 
that faithful friend and affectionate companion of his master; 
the cat, the household pet of her mistress; and even the hen 
and the dove, who practically make their home at the family 
residence, have, by careful selection and cross-breeding, de- 
veloped multifarious formal modifications of the common 
stock. This is the distinctive province of evolution. 

But the moment that we meet with unanswerable proofs 
of creative contrivance, such as those to which our attention 
has already been repeatedly called, Evolution sinks to a 
position of only secondary consequence, becoming a field for 
the gratification of scientific curiosity rather than for the 
discovery of important and far-reaching truths. Tor, if there 
exists in nature even a single instance of creative contrivance, 
then there exists an intelligent Power which dominates nature 
and all of its so-called "laws," and uses the processes of Evo- 
lution simply as one means, and not in any sense a necessary 
means, of carrying out its plans. Creative contrivance — and 
not evolution, is, therefore, the key to the question of su- 
preme importance to the human race. And the evidence of 
its existence and action is found in every department of 
nature's animate works, and is conclusive. 

The range of Darwin's Theory of Evolution is, there- 
fore, limited. It does not pretend to account for the origin 
of life, except by admitting that it was due directly to a 
creative act. It cannot bridge the vacant paleontological 
spaces that exist in the assumed line of succession from 
monad to man, except by mere conjectures. It does not 



EVOLUTION AND DESIGN 183 

satisfactorily account for the origin of new organs or struc- 
tures. It is unable to answer the innumerable proofs of 
creative contrivance, and the clear evidences of creative de- 
sign. It is flatly contradicted by the osteoblasts and the 
osteoclasts. 

It does, however, in most cases, fully and satisfactorily 
explain the modification of external organs, and the loss of 
organs or structures by disuse. In this, it has contributed 
materially to the advancement of human knowledge. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 
Contrivance Shown in Nature's Inanimate Works. 

"The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth 
His handiwork. " 

Let us now turn our attention to nature's inanimate 
works, to see whether we can discover, in these also, any 
proofs of Creative design. We could not reasonably expect 
a priori to find in mere matter, or mere force, conclusive 
proofs of design; for science knows nothing of the origin 
or nature of ultimate matter or of force. 

But if there be found in the material universe conclusive 
evidence of contrivance, then that universe itself will, in- 
dependently of all other sources of evidence, prove the ex- 
istence of a Creator, and probably shed more or less light 
upon the purpose for which the established order of things 
that we see around us was brought into being. And if, on 
the other hand, there should be found evidence that is 
strongly persuasive (though not conclusive) of contrivance, 
it would be in harmony with, and corroboration of, the con- 
clusive proofs already discovered in the animate works of 
nature — corroboration, both by adding its own strength to 
that of the proofs already considered, and also by meeting, 
in advance, the argument that the absence of all proof of 
contrivance in the material universe would tend to discredit 
the conclusions drawn from other evidence, there being ap- 
parently no reason why contrivance, if really found in the 
animate works of nature, sheuld not also appear in her in- 
animate works. 

184 



NATURE'S INANIMATE WORKS 185 

It would be unprofitable to enter upon a dicussion of the 
speculative conjectures by which men have endeavored to ac- 
count for the universe without recognizing the existence of 
an intelligent Creator — unprofitable, because they are mere 
speculations and guesses, unsupported by the slightest evi- 
dence and therefore unworthy of consideration. One favorite 
assumption of these visionaries is, that the universe is con- 
tinually undergoing a process of reconstruction and renewal 
through the occasional demolition of a planet or a sun in con- 
sequence of the collision with it of a comet or other celestial 
body; and that, therefore, the cosmos cannot be conceived 
of as having had a beginning, or as being under the care of 
a controlling intelligence. But, it has been calculated that 
such a collision with a comet could not occur oftener than 
once in fifteen million years; and, from what we now know 
of comets, we have every reason to believe that such an im- 
pact would be substantially harmless to everything but the 
comet itself. Less than fifty years ago, the earth actually 
passed through the tail of one of these comets without the 
slightest disturbance. Whether burned-out suns ever collide 
with planets or other suns we do not know. The sudden ap- 
pearance of a bright light for a few months on the far-off 
boundary of the universe has been thought to indicate such 
a collision; but there is no certainty of it, and no proof that 
any such collision ever happened. All is mere speculation and 
guesswork. It may be true, for aught we know, that the 
Creator does take that method of renewing His wornout 
suns, but, if so, it does not justify the inference that there is 
no God, but, rather, the contrary. 

The baseless character of many of these so-called "scien- 
tific" speculations is well illustrated by a conjecture put 
forth a few years ago to the effect that atoms and molecules 
cannot exist in the sun because, as was assumed, its intense 



186 NATURE'S INANIMATE WOEKS 

heat would destroy their organization and reduce their com- 
ponents to the ultimate form of cosmic matter. Of course, 
nobody knows what was the ultimate form of cosmic matter, 
and nobody has visited the sun, or ever will visit it, to as- 
certain the local effects of its heat. What an excellent oppor- 
tunity was thus presented for theorizing about something 
that can never be proved or disproved, and for amazing 

"the gazing rustics ranged around, 
With words of learned length and thundering sound!" 

The great majority of these baseless speculations are set 
forth in the name of Evolution — meaning, by Evolution, not 
Darwin's theory of animal and plant development by varia- 
tion and "natural selection, " but the speculative and un- 
provable hypothesis that all things, animate and inanimate, 
including even life and mind, have gradually evolved from 
preexisting forms of matter, through the supposed operation 
of some general, but utterly inscrutable, law of the universe. 
This is the fundamental doctrine of materialism. 

But the great difficulty that stands in the way of all these 
speculative hypotheses is, that the universe is, evidently, a 
vast machine; and that machines cannot be constructed with- 
out contrivance, nor can contrivance take place without the 
exercise of mind. It requires no extraordinary mechanical 
intuition to discover that our solar system, for example, is 
a mighty machine, and that it is mechanically connected 
with all parts of the universe within the range of our tele- 
scopes and spectroscopes. It is impossible that the regularity 
and order of its movements, the harmony of its cooperating 
parts, and the tremendous forces employed in impelling and 
directing them should fail to impress any intelligent mind 
with the idea of mechanism. That it is a machine in no 



NATURE'S INANIMATE WORKS 187 

mere metaphorical sense, but in the practical signification of 
the word, has been visually shown in Graham's machine, the 
Orrery, built to represent in miniature the movements and 
relative magnitudes and distances of the planets revolving 
with their satellites around our sun. His illustrative model, 
of course, represents those facts in a very imperfect and in- 
adequate way; but it is enough; for, if anyone doubts that 
the solar system is a great machine, a glance at the me- 
chanical model will speedily convince him of his error. If 
it takes a machine to represent it, the thing represented must 
be a machine. 

Newton's great discovery and demonstration that gravi- 
tation is the main spring and momentum the regulator, 
which cause and control the movement of suns, planets and 
comets, was a complete confirmation of the mechanical the- 
ory of the universe. Since that discovery, we know posi- 
tively that the universe is a machine; and therefore thinking 
minds have little confidence in those conjectures that would 
exclude from it the idea of an intelligent Creator. Machines 
do not grow, but are made. 

Newton's achievement was something more than a dis- 
covery; it was a revelation, making known to us the form 
and condition in which matter was created. If all matter in 
our solar system, exclusive of the sun, were collected into one 
mass, the laws of motion discovered by Newton show that 
that mass would fall in a straight line directly into the sun, 
as the apple fell upon Newton's head. But, being divided 
into separate masses, at different distances from the sun, 
the same laws show that none of those masses can, or ever 
could, fall into the sun — the reason being that their attrac- 
tion for each other causes them to diverge from straight 
lines extending towards the grand center of attraction, and 
their momentum then coacts with gravitation to compel them 



188 NATURE'S INANIMATE WORKS 

to pass in elliptical orbits around that center. These facts 
not only indicate creative design, but they also indicate that, 
in the beginning, chaotic matter "without form and void" 
occupied an inconceivably vast portion of the infinite noth- 
ingness which we term "Space," and that gravitation and 
momentum, opportunely taking advantage of an unequal 
distribution of such matter, proceeded to organize it into 
suns, planets and comets. Indeed, the work of organiza- 
tion seems to be not yet completed ; for the telescope reveals 
to our eyes many vast tracts of nebulous matter at incon- 
ceivable distances from our solar system, 1 and in some of 
them are stars which apparently are suns still forming out 
of the surrounding matter. 

The mighty machine which we have been considering not 
only displays clear proof of creative contrivance, but excites 
our wonder and admiration at the perfection of that con- 
trivance. For it is a perpetual-motion machine, running 
without friction, and perfectly self-regulating. The in- 
genuity of man has never been able to invent a machine hav- 
ing any one of these three characteristics, yet here they are, 
all in one machine, and in every working member of it. And 
the amazing thing is, that the skeptical materialist assumes 
that all parts of this machine came together by chance and 
without the exercise of invention! 

But let us look further into the construction of this great 
machine, to see if we can discover the secret of its driving- 
power, gravitation, — a secret which involves both the origin 
and the transmission of the tremendous force that handles 

1 Those enormous distances are measured in terms of ' ' light- 
years, " for convenience of expression. A light-year is the distance 
which light travels in one year — more than seven trillions of miles. 
The distance from the earth of 168 nebulae (a very few, in comparison 
with the whole number known) has been found to average 700 light- 
years; or, in other words, about five thousand millions of millions of 
miles. 



NATUEE'S INANIMATE WORKS 189 

suns and planets as though they were grains of sand. We 
find the secret of the origin of gravitation to be utterly in- 
scrutable, but its transmission evidently depends, in some 
unknown way, upon the luminiferous ether. For, we cannot 
conceive of mechanical power being transmitted without some 




Fig. 16. Nebula. 

adequate means of transmission. We know, from the opera- 
tion of our dynamos, that the ether is an adequate means for 
the transmission of enormous mechanical power. So far as 
science is able to inform us, there is no other substance than 
ether which extends continuously from every star to every 



190 NATUEE'S INANIMATE WOEKS 

other star, and even from every atom to every other atom in 
the universe. There can, therefore, be no reasonable doubt 
that the luminif erous ether is the means employed for trans- 
mitting the motive-power of the celestial machinery. 

The more we study that machinery, the more wonderful 
it appears, and the more conspicuous is the fact of its creative 
contrivance. So far as it is composed of matter, it obeys the 
laws of matter just as do all the machines invented by man, 
and we can as readily understand it as we do man's ma- 
chines. But, as we have seen, it is not composed of matter 
alone, but contains, as one of its most important factors, the 
luminiferous ether, an element which has none of the char- 
acteristics of matter, and which, to distinguish it from mat- 
ter, we have designated by the word "substance." The ether 
has no atoms, no molecules, no weight, and no resistance — 
all which are fundamental characteristics of matter. Every 
atom of matter is separated from every other atom by inter- 
vening ether ; and even the infinitesimal elements which com- 
pose atoms seem to be separated from each other by ether. 
The ether alone is solid — infinitely solid — and yet in all of 
its parts infinitely mobile. The human mind can hardly real- 
ize these facts. Accustomed as we are to the characteristics 
of matter, it is well-nigh as difficult for us to conceive of 
the immaterial ether as it is to conceive of an immaterial 
soul; and yet it exists, and we make practical use of it in 
our dynamos and our wireless-telegraphy; as the Creator 
makes practical use of it in transmitting the force of 
gravitation. 

In the Creative plan, it was necessary to fill the universe 
with some substance which should be capable of transmitting 
mechanical power, and yet incapable of resistance to any 
matter passing through it. We know of no such substance 
except the ether. But what a strange conclusion would it 



NATURE'S INANIMATE WORKS 191 

be, to assume that it was by mere blind chance that the uni- 
verse was filled with the only substance which could have set 
the mighty machine in motion and kept it forever from run- 
ning down! Do such mechanical coincidences happen by 
chance ! Is it not more reasonable to believe that He who 
fashioned the valves of the heart; who contrived the won- 
derful mechanism of the eye ; who fitted out His spiders with 
spinning-machinery that is little short of the miraculous in 
construction and operation; who devised special muscles that 
can work, night and day, for a hundred years without rest 
or sleep; who foresaw and confounded the evolutionary spec- 
ulations of materialism by setting His osteoblasts and osteo- 
clasts at work to manufacture bone in defiance of the supposed 
"laws" of Evolution; who has displayed in countless other 
ways the infinite resources of His creative mind ; and who was 
the only intelligence that had anything to do with the con- 
struction and organization of the universe; than it is to 
believe that the luminiferous ether owes its strange qualities 
to chance, or took its place in the structure of the universe- 
machine in any other way than by Creative design? 

Let us consider still more closely the question of con- 
trivance as displayed in the construction and operation of 
that mighty machine which we term the Universe. For our 
facts, we shall rery upon no speculation or guesswork, but only 
upon the unanswerable demonstrations of the higher 
mathematics. 

Of the building materials, matter and ether, it is unnec- 
essary to say anything more than has already been said. 
Throughout the universe, they are the same as we know them 
here on Earth. Indeed, some forms of matter man did not 
find on Earth until after his spectroscopes had first detected 
them in the sun and he had thereby been led to search for 
and discover them on our planet also. 



192 NATUKE'S INANIMATE WOKKS 

We are familiar with the forces, gravitation and mo- 
mentum, having occasion to make use of them daily in the 
ordinary affairs of life, and therefore knowing their general 
nature and their laws. We are thus enabled not only to cal- 
culate, as Newton did, what must happen when these forces 
are acting together upon matter, but also to calculate what 
must have happened in the beginning had either of them 
been acting alone. 

Gravitation and momentum are defined as follows : Gravi- 
tation : That which causes every atom in the universe to tend 
to move towards every other atom with a force directly pro- 
portional to the product of their mass, and inversely pro- 
portionate to the square of the distance between them. Mo- 
mentum: That which causes matter, when set in motion in 
any direction, to move with a degree of energy directly pro- 
portionate to the product of its mass multiplied by the square 
of its velocity. 

As we have seen, these forces, acting together upon mat- 
ter, were the means by which nature, or, in other words, the 
author of nature, wrought out and still governs, the structure 
of the universe. They comprehend the mechanism — nay, they 
themselves are the effective mechanism which controls the 
movements of the stars and planets. When man constructs a 
machine, he provides it with motive power, belts, shafting, 
gear-wheels, pulleys, springs, adjusting screws, and other 
equipments, to insure its satisfactory operation; and it soon 
gets out of order, needing readjustment or repair, or even 
reconstruction. But the mighty engine of which these two 
forces are the controlling mechanism, never gets out of order, 
never runs down, furnishes its own motive-power, and renews* 
itself forever ! What inconceivable ingenuity was necessary 
to produce such amazing results with means so simple ! 

Gravitation, acting alone upon matter evenly distributed 



NATURE'S INANIMATE WOEKS 193 

through space, would have caused it to fall directly, in con- 
verging lines, to the universal center of gravity, where it 
would have become massed together in the form of a globe 
of inconceivable magnitude and incalculable centripetal 
pressure. 

Gravitation, acting alone upon matter unevenly distrib- 
uted through space, would have caused the larger masses 
throughout space to draw to themselves the matter imme- 
diately surrounding them, and the augmented masses, in the 
form of globes, to fall to the universal center of gravity, with 
the same final result as before. 

Thus, gravitation, uncontrolled, could have accomplished 
no other result than the dumping of all the materials into 
one vast globular mass, where they would have remained, 
glowing with fervent heat, for ages whose duration is beyond 
the power of the imagination to conceive. On the surface of 
that great central mass, no life could ever exist, for the enor- 
mous centripetal pressure would render all superficial bodies 
immovable. It is calculated that at the surface of our sun a 
man of average size would weigh a ton — judge what the con- 
ditions would be at the surface of a sphere inconceivably 
greater than the sun ! 

From all such disastrous conditions, the universe was saved 
by momentum, which, coacting with gravitation, deflected the 
falling masses from their course toward the center of gravity, 
and compelled them to travel forever in circular or elliptical 
orbits around that center. And see how simple its parts, and 
yet complex in its action and infinitely perfect in its opera- 
tion, that combination was ! To make our explanation clear, 
we will assume that, under the influence of gravitation alone, 
two separate masses of matter, say, at the distance of a bil- 
lion miles from the center of gravity, and at a considerable 
distance from each other, were falling at different velocities 



194 NATURE'S INANIMATE WORKS 

(one, perhaps, having traveled farther than the other), 
straight towards the center of gravity. The two masses would 
attract each other, and thus tend to converge, and to unite 
before reaching the central sun. But now suppose that, when 
they began to converge, the force of momentum was added to 
their equipment. This force, when it gets into action in a 
body moving at great velocity, tends to move it in a straight 
line and with an energy not only exceeding that of gravita- 
tion but also increasing much more rapidly than that of grav- 
itation. The result would be that the two masses, instead of 
coming together and falling into the central sun, would cross 
each other's path and shoot off into space, one in one direction 
and the other in another, and would recede from each other 
so far that we may now, in our further discussion, confine our 
attention to but one of them. This one (it matters not 
which of the two we take for illustration) is still under the 
increasing influence of the sun's attraction ; but it is also 
under the far more rapidly increasing influence of its own 
momentum ; so that for the time, momentum has become the 
master-force and attraction a regulating-force tending to draw 
the mass toward the sun, but resisted by the inertia of the 
mass which tends to keep its movement in a straight line in 
the direction in which it is going. Under the action of these 
forces, the mass does not fall into the central sun, but shoots 
past it with tremendous velocity. The instant that it is 
past the sun, presto, change ! Gravitation, which up to this 
time has been an impelling force, now suddenly becomes a 
resisting-force, tending to check the wild speed of the flying 
mass, bring it around to the other side of the sun, and ad- 
minister to it a parting kick to help it to return to the place 
whence it came. In other words, gravitation now opposes 
momentum until the mass has been obliged to turn back on 
its course, then unites with it until the moving body passes 



NATURE'S INANIMATE WORKS 195 

the sun on its return trip, then changes once more to an 
opposing force (but opposing with gradualty-decr easing en- 
ergy) and, slowly overcoming momentum, wheels the mass 
around to the place whence it came, where it sets it once 
more into motion towards the sun, with the same result as 
before. 

How is it possible for anyone to turn his attention to the 
action of this wonderful mechanism without feeling, irre- 
sistibly, that it is the invention of an infinite creative Intel- 
ligence ! Observe the perfection of its mechanical operation, 
the strange play of the shifting forces, which now reinforce, 
now oppose, each other, but always apparently keep the pur- 
pose of the invention in view, and tend constantly to further 
it, whether by mutual aid or mutual opposition; and con- 
sider the simplicity of the means which together work out 
the great result. Who but God himself could have planned 
such a structure! 

But perhaps you are not yet convinced that the Creator 
contrived the ether as a means of operating without friction 
the great machine which He was preparing to construct; or 
even not convinced that He knows what frictional resistance 
is, and for what reasons it is generally desirable to suppress 
it, so far as possible, in operative mechanical structures. Let 
me assure you that He knows all about friction and has often 
had to deal with it in His other machines; and that He has 
never failed to deal with it successfully, although often 
obliged to contrive means for overcoming it. In the parietal 
and pulmonary plurse, for example, where two large surfaces 
are required to rub against each other continually for per- 
haps a hundred years, he provides for keeping them 
anointed with a lubricant which enables them to work with- 
out sensible friction ; and, in the various joints of the animal 
body, He provides for the inexhaustible supply of an effective 



196 NATUBE'S INANIMATE WOEKS 

lubricant. These various lubricants are material ; because the 
conditions necessarily require a material lubricant. But a 
material lubricant has weight, inertia, and, therefore, resist- 
ance to material bodies passing through it. Hence, the great 
universal-machine required an immaterial lubricant, incapable 
of resistance to material bodies ; for the stars and their planets 
have to traverse it at enormous velocities, and if they en- 
countered the slightest resistance the machine would in- 
evitably run down, precipitating all things into a veritable 
hell-fire at the center of the universe. From this final and 
irremediable catastrophe, the universe is saved by the strange- 
ly-peculiar qualities of the luminiferous ether. Do not all 
these things furnish indubitable evidence of creative design? 
Let me, further, direct your attention to the simplicity of 
the means by which the Creator accomplishes results most 
varied and divergent. The ether enables gravitation to set 
the machine in motion; and then keeps it from running 
down. Gravitation furnishes the motive-power, and, with the 
aid of momentum, directs the heavenly bodies in their orbits ; 
and it also acts to give them their form, to hold everything 
in place on their surface, and to generate vast stores of sun- 
heat for their use. The ether, in addition to its two func- 
tions already mentioned, serves the further purposes of con- 
veying light and heat to the planets, and of furnishing a 
medium for the instant communication of intelligence over 
sea or land from any part of their surface to any other part. 
Now, was it by chance, or by design, that the two substances 
of which all nature consists, matter and ether, happened to 
differ from each other so radically, and yet in that very dif- 
ference lay the only possibility of life and usefulness? Was 
it by chance, or by design, that the several qualities of the 
two substances happened to bear such relation to each other 
as to render physical life possible ? Was it by chance, or by 



NATURE'S INANIMATE WOEKS 197 

design, that the forces of the universe seem to have been con- 
trived to eoact with its substances not only to render physical 
life possible, hut to prepare a suitable abode for it? And, 
finally, was physical life the grand object of the Creative 
plan, or merely incidental to it? 

We have seen that the material universe exhibits all the 
characteristics of a vast mechanism, operating in absolute 
compliance with the laws which govern the machines that 
man builds; that it shows, in perfection, every conceivable 
indication of contrivance that can be shown in a man-made 
machine; and that accomplishing what man has never been 
able to compass in his machines, it runs by perpetual motion 
and, once in action, can never stop. Can there be any doubt 
that such a machine displays invention, design, or contrivance, 
and that it must have had a contriver ! 

To some persons — and no wonder that it is so — the vast- 
ness of its magnitude and energy, and the very perfection of 
its action, operate to dazzle the mental vision and obscure the 
judgment. Bewildered by what they see, and not observing 
the bodily presence of the mighty engineer who created and 
controls it, nor understanding the purpose for which it was 
created, they come to regard the universe as an inscrutable 
mystery, and give up the effort in despair. To such minds, 
there is but one thing that can clear the vision and restore 
the judgment; and that is, the study and contemplation of 
the manifold evidences of the action of intelligence and 
creative design or contrivance in the works of nature. 

Thus we see that evidences of Divine contrivance are not 
found exclusively in the animate works of nature, but that 
they are also strikingly displayed in her inanimate works. 
All things together seem to testify to the existence of an in- 
telligent Creator. How puerile are the speculations of ma- 
terialism, in the presence of this great array of evidence ! 



CHAPTER XV. 

Same Subject Continued. 

To the question, What was the object or purpose of the 
Author of nature, that caused Him to take such infinite care 
in devising and building the system of worlds which we now 
see and in one of which we have our residence, there can be 
but one answer : namely, He devised and built it for the pur- 
pose for which He is using it. He has thus already answered 
the question Himself, by proceeding to carry his purpose into 
execution ; and that answer is conclusive. It was for no pur- 
pose of display or vain-glory that He reared the great struc- 
ture; for His works show that He is intensely practical, and 
that ostentation and vanity — the characteristics of weak and 
trifling minds — have no place in His nature. 

Judging from the use He is making of His work, His 
purpose was evidently not many, but one only — the creation 
of a suitable abode for living beings having physical bodies. 
We know not for what purpose other material worlds may be 
used; but that is the only purpose for which this world is 
used, and it is therefore strongly indicative that it is the 
only purpose for which all material worlds are used, and the 
only purpose for which they were created. 

We have thus a conclusive reason for believing that this 
world was created for the use of living beings. And we have 
very convincing reasons — scarcely less than conclusive — that 
it was created for the especial use of one particular race of 
living beings, Man. He alone has been endowed with the 
mental and physical powers necessary to enable him to take 
possession of it and utilize its resources. All other living 
beings have been disqualified from being anything else than 

198 



NATURE'S INANIMATE WORKS 199 

subordinate to him — plants, by their fixedness of position; 
animals of all classes other than human, by their want of 
articulate speech, the structure of their physical organs, and 
the inferiority of their mental powers. It was evidently in- 
tended that Man should rule the world, and that all other 
created beings on this planet should bow to his will and min- 
ister to his necessities. Such is the clear teaching of nature, 
and such has been the universal interpretation of it by Man 
himself. And if beings exist on other planets, with powers 
similar to, or comparable with, those of man, although their 
physical bodies may be different from ours, it must be as- 
sumed that they, too, are, or are destined to be, the rulers 
of their worlds; and they are entitled to be comprehended 
within the term, Man, as distinctive of the highest physical 
embodiment of life. 

On the evidence of nature herself, therefore, the universe 
is to be regarded as created for the special benefit of Man 
and his peers. That fact suffices to explain the secret of the 
wonderful care and labor that have been expended upon the 
perfecting of his physical organization. It gives the reason 
for providing his brain and nerve system with that exquisite 
telegraph and telephone combination to which our attention 
will be directed further on; for giving him, alone of all 
created beings, the ability to explore and understand the con- 
struction and operation of the universe in which he lives ; for 
giving him, alone of all the animal kingdom, the insight to 
divine from the works of nature the existence of God, and to 
look forward to the enjoyment of eternal life in a higher state 
of existence, where, it is to be hoped and expected, we shall 
be able to enter into a more intimate association with him. 
This, and this alone, was apparently the Divine purpose in 
creating the universe, as evinced by- proofs directly from His 
own hand. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Design Manifested by the Laws of Nature. 

We have found, in the construction and operation of the 
universe, a mechanical contrivance of infinite perfection, 
whose purpose, as shown by the use which its Creator is mak- 
ing of it, was to furnish a suitable residence for intelligent 
beings embodied in material form, and especially for Man. 
Throughout the animate works of nature, there appear every- 
where, as we have seen, striking and conclusive proofs of Cre- 
ative design, and of the interest which their author takes in 
the welfare of His creatures. The expenditure of all this 
care and effort in their behalf warrants the expectation that 
further proofs of creative design are likely to be found in 
connection with the equipment of man's residence for his 
temporary occupation as a home. We will, therefore, briefly 
examine planetary conditions, to see whether these expecta- 
tions will be justified by any additional evidences of creative 
design in them. 

The fixed stars are at such enormous distances from our 
solar system that their planets are invisible through the 
most powerful telescopes. Hence, for the study of planetary 
conditions indicating Creative design, we are limited prac- 
tically to those of the Earth; for the larger planets of our 
system have not yet cooled sufficiently to be habitable for 
physical beings; the surface of Venus is obscured by a deep 
atmosphere and dense clouds and is only partially visible 
through the telescope; Mercury is too near the sun to be 
closely observed; and even Mars, although his surface is vis- 
ible, is too far away for satisfactory study. We learn from 

200 



MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATUBE 201 

him, however, that his conditions are quite similar to those 
of Earth, making due allowance for his smaller size and 
greater age. His surface reveals the presence of an atmos- 
phere, water, polar snow-caps, equatorial warmth, and the 
regular sequence of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and 
gives indications of vegetation, and (as some think) of an 
intelligent population far in advance of man in the industrial 
arts. Certainly, there is no reason for believing that he is not 
so inhabited. 

We are, therefore, justified in taking the conditions of 
Earth to be typical of those of millions of other planets un- 
seen by us, but which must have been formed from matter 
by the same agencies that were employed to build up our 
globe, and presumably for the same purpose. 

In examining into the conditions operative on Earth, our 
attention is attracted at once by the fact that here is another 
perpetual-motion mechanism, and that without it this globe 
would be adapted neither for animal nor for plant life. Of 
this mechanism, the principles of its construction are clear, 
and its purpose is clear. It is a mechanism for elevating 
water from the ocean, conveying it to the land, scattering it 
gently upon the land-surface, and returning to the ocean any 
unused residue, to be there held in readiness for indefinite 
future repetitions of the circulating process. It involves, be- 
sides, a vast filtration-scheme; for sea-water is poisonous to 
land plants, and the poison must be removed from it before 
it is used for irrigation. 

If the man who first invented a pump had been also the 
first to invent a filter, and had attached his filter to his 
pump, so as to filter the water by the very act of raising 
it for use, his achievement would have been universally recog- 
nized as conclusive proof not only of the action of mind, but 
of a mind remarkable for its inventive powers. But millions 



202 MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATUEE 

of years before any living being had made its appearance on 
Earth, the Author of Nature had made that same invention 
— only far more perfect in operation than anything man ever 
made — and had put it into practical use on a world-wide scale 
on Earth and Mars ! 

Now, "nature" does not think — the rocks, the air, water, 
light, heat, force, do not think. You must look somewhere 
else than to them to account for any phenomenon that was 
clearly produced by contrivance and for a manifest purpose. 
An intelligent Mind is the only possible explanation of all 
such things. Consult your own reason and common-sense 
and be forever convinced of that fact. Do not allow your- 
self to be befogged by metaphysical sophistries nor by fine- 
spun theories based upon mere guesswork — even if you find 
them in books bearing the catchwords, "Philosophy " or 
"Evolution!" 

If the mechanism for putting in operation the vast irri- 
gating and filtering scheme that makes this Earth habitable 
were constructed in one of the forms which have become 
familiar to us in the little filtering and irrigating appliances 
made and used by man, there would never have arisen a ques- 
tion as to whether or not it had been contrived by an in- 
telligent mind. But, in any of these forms, it would not 
have been practicable for watering the whole land-surface, 
and, besides, would have been bungling in construction and 
imperfect in operation to such a degree as to discredit the 
wisdom of its author. It is the very perfection of the Cre- 
ator's mechanism that conceals from the common mind the 
fact that it is mechanism at all. There is no jar in the 
working of His machinery, to betray its artificial character. 
Man was on Earth thousands of years, whirling through space 
at the rate of a thousand miles a minute, and at the same 
time revolving around the terrestrial axis at the speed of a 



MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATUKE 203 

thousand miles an hour, before he ever suspected that his 
dwelling-place was in motion. No wonder that he has failed 
to be impressed with the Creator's silently-acting mechanism 
for circulating water from ocean to atmosphere, from atmos- 
phere to land, and from land back to ocean ! 

And what a wonderful contrivance is that by means of 
which the water is raised out of the ocean without taking 
the salts up with it, is held suspended in vast quantities in 
the atmosphere without impairing the transparency of the 
air, and is shed upon the Earth's surface in refreshing drops 
or beautiful snow-flakes ! Let us spend a few moments in 
the consideration of it in detail. 

The effective means employed by the Creator to enable 
fresh water to be separated on a large scale from the surface 
of the salt sea, conveyed over the land, and there delivered for 
the use of animals and plants, is a gaseous atmosphere, over- 
lying both the water and land surfaces of our planet, and 
mobile in all its parts. On the surfaces of land and sea, it 
presses with a weight of nearly fifteen pounds to the square 
inch. Its depth is usually estimated at about fifty miles, but 
that is evidently an underestimate, for falling meteors man- 
ifest contact with it at a much greater height. 

Science informs us that it is to atmospheric pressure that 
we are indebted for the liquid form of water upon our globe ; 
for, if the air were removed, evaporation would soon dry up 
the oceans and lakes and would leave the earth surrounded 
with an atmosphere of water-vapor, totally unfitted for any 
form of physical life now known or even conceivable. 

But for land animals and plants, liquid water is as in- 
dispensable as air. Their bodies are largely composed of it, 
and it must, therefore, be supplied to them in ample quan- 
tities, as an aliment. Hence, in the planning and creating of 
the universe, two conflicting conditions presented themselves : 



204 MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATUEE 

by one of them, the water had to be held down in its ocean 
bed in order to render the planets habitable; by the other, 
large quantities of water had to be raised from its ocean bed, 
purified from its salts, and distributed over the land sur- 
faces in order to enable them to support their animal and 
plant inhabitants. The problem of how to satisfy both of 
these conflicting conditions at once, on a world-wide scale, 
and thus reconcile them to each other, is one which must have 
presented itself to the Divine mind at the very beginning of 
things; and its successful solution furnished us with an 
instance of Divine contrivance which cannot but impress us 
with wonder and admiration. 

The Creator puts His contrivances into operation by di- 
recting the forces of nature in accordance with His plans. 
The "laws of nature" are His laws, imposed upon Himself 
as well as upon His universe. Hence, in solving the great 
problem here under consideration, He created and surrounded 
the planets with an atmosphere which should hold the water 
down in order to render them habitable, and yet elevate and 
convey to land a sufficient quantity of it to provide for the 
wants of His creatures. The modus operandi by which this is 
effected was unknown to man until less than a century ago, 
and was then revealed through one of the most brilliant of 
scientific discoveries. This was the discovery that all atoms 
and molecules are normally in a state of violent agitation; 
that the molecules of gases, liquids, and a few unstable solids, 
not being restrained by the force of cohesion, do actually exe- 
cute bodily movements in space, thereby continually colliding 
with each other and with the walls and bottom of any vessel 
in which they may be contained ; that, although the molecules 
of a liquid are restrained to a certain extent by their gravity 
and their cohesion with each other, yet these bodily move- 
ments enable them to escape from the surface of the liquid 



MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATUKE 205 

unless they are held down by superior force ; that the weight 
of the atmosphere, resting upon a liquid, is a force sufficient, 
at ordinary temperatures, to prevent its surface molecules 
from escaping ; and that the molecules of a gas, being entirely 
free from cohesion and. each of but little weight, execute 
longer and more violent movements than those of a liquid. 

It follows from these facts that when a gas rests upon a 
liquid as the air does upon the water surfaces of the globe, its 
lower stratum of molecules is incessantly engaged in a violent 
bombardment of the liquid beneath it ; and that as the liquid 
itself is also composed of molecules, which are separated from 
each other by infinitesimal void spaces, the molecules of gas 
are able to penetrate into these inter-molecular spaces and 
there go on with their agitation, adding their vibrational force 
to that of the liquid molecules, and thus aiding the latter to 
escape from their confinement and soar upwards into the at- 
mosphere, where they are free to go wherever the winds may 
carry them. Such is, in general terms, the process of evap- 
oration. Heat intensifies molecular agitation, and thus facili- 
tates evaporation. On the contrary, cold and pressure retard 
it; although even in the coldest days of winter the surface 
evaporation from the seas and lakes is still very active, send- 
ing up into the air vast quantities of water vapor. 

The weight of the atmosphere aids its lower molecules 
to force their way into the intermolecular spaces of the water 
beneath; and the effect of this weight may be largely in- 
creased by subjecting the air or gas to pressure in a closed ves- 
sel. With a pressure of only seven pounds to the square inch 
in excess of the normal atmospheric pressure, air is driven in 
great quantities into water, and, in consequence of its own re- 
markable elasticity, is compressed to much less than its 
original volume. As a result, a vessel filled with water may 
also be practically filled with air without displacing the 



206 MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATUKE 

water, the air being compressed and forced into the inter- 
molecular spaces of the water, where it will remain so long 
as the pressure is maintained, and will be entirely invisible. 
If any reader is not familiar with the action of gases under 
pressure in entering into the intermolecular spaces of a liquid, 
he may easily obtain visual evidence of the fact by simply 
uncorking a bottle of soda water and watching the bubbles of 
expanding gas, now liberated from pressure, rising through 
the liquid, sometimes with force sufficient to eject the water 
bodily from the bottle. 

The process of evaporation, by which the surface-water 
is thus lifted, molecule by molecule, into the atmosphere, is a 
perfect filtration-process. In most solids, the cohesion of the 
molecules is too strong to permit any of them to be liberated 
by the action of surrounding gases; and, consequently, the 
salts and other impurities remain behind, and only the liquid 
goes off. 

"While the elevation of the water into the atmosphere is 
thus explained by evaporation, and its removal from over the 
sea is accounted for by the winds, there yet remains one thing 
now to be considered, namely, — the means by which the at- 
mosphere is compelled to discharge its cargo of water-mole- 
cules upon the land or other surface below, in order that it 
may go back for another freight. 

We have seen how the unsocial air-molecules repel each 
other and thus tend to fly off into space. But they cannot 
get very far upward, for as they rise the surrounding space 
increases and they become separated from each other so far 
that their mutual collisions are less frequent — they have now, 
so to speak, more elbow-room, and therefore less reason to 
go farther upward. Moreover, gravitation, which acts con- 
stantly upon them, tends to press them back towards earth. 
At a certain distance from the earth's surface, therefore, the 



MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATURE 207 

air-pressure upward and the gravity pressure downward are 
in equilibrium, establishing the normal surface of the great 
ocean of air which surrounds our globe. 

A sponge soaks up water because it is porous or full of 
communicating air-spaces — reduce the dimensions of the air- 
spaces by squeezing the sponge, and the water is displaced 
and flows out. In like manner, the intermolecular spaces of 
the atmosphere, in which are carried its invisible cargo of 
separate water-molecules, may be reduced, and, indeed, will 
necessarily be reduced by anything (such, for example, as 
cold or pressure) which further restricts the vibrations of 
the air-molecules. The invisible water-molecules are thus 
caused to come more frequently into contact with each other 
within the reduced air-spaces, and as they cohere by contact 
while the air-molecules do not, they gradually unite and take 
first the form of visible water-vapor; then, by further ac- 
cretion the form of droplets or mist; and lastly, by still fur- 
ther accretion the form of drops or rain. The whole process 
may at any time be witnessed on the sides of a glass or metal 
vessel suddenly filled with ice-water in a warm room; almost 
instantly a thin film of vapor is deposited upon it, which 
soon thickens into droplets, and ultimately runs down in 
drops. The moisture thus deposited has been drawn from the 
air, in which it has been brought in molecular form (and 
therefore invisible) from the seas and lakes. 

The same causes keep the air constantly in motion, con- 
veying or discharging its cargo of water, or going back for 
more. Any chilling of the air over any region reduces its 
volume over that region, and causes the surrounding air to 
flow in to reestablish the normal level; any heating of the 
air over a region expands its volume and causes a portion of 
the air above to flow off over the surrounding regions and 
thus restore the normal level. Heat is not the only form of 



208 MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATUKE 

force that causes this local expansion and contraction of the 
atmosphere. 

A similar result is produced if the air become anywhere 
statically charged with electricity; for, in that case, the elec- 
trified air-particles more strongly repel each other, and a 
marked expansion of volume occurs in the air of the region 
affected. Unable to get relief downward or prompt relief lat- 
erally, the local swelling of the atmosphere pushes the over- 
lying air upward, increasing the vertical height (or, in other 
words, depth) of the atmospheric ocean over the area of dis- 
turbance. At the surface of that ocean, the air thus raised 
above the normal level immediately begins to flow off later- 
ally in every direction, under the influence of gravity, seeking, 
and after a time regaining, a level with the surrounding sur- 
face. But there is now less air over the region affected than 
there was originally, because a portion has been removed by 
the outflow; and at the surface of the earth a rapid fall of 
the barometer indicates what has taken place, and forebodes a 
storm. But as yet there is no visible change in the appear- 
ance of the atmosphere, to confirm the warning given by the 
barometer; the thinner air is only absorbing water be]ow 
faster than usual. At length, slowly or suddenly, by causes 
beyond our ken, the electric charge is dissipated, and the air, 
resuming its normal densit}^ becomes contracted in volume 
where it had recently been expanded. The result is the for- 
mation of vapor and clouds in the lower regions of the air, 
and the simultaneous formation of a depression in the upper 
surface of the atmosphere where there had recently been a 
swelling. The air now rushes in from all sides to fill that 
depression, moving in spiral lines as it descends into the 
saucer-shaped hollow, in accordance with the well-known 
]aws of fluid motion. The rotary motion is communicated to 
the air below, and the predicted storm has now arrived "on 



MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATURE 209 

schedule time." It is to these various disturbances of the 
equilibrium of the air, that we are indebted for the winds 
which are forever in action somewhere, carrying their cargo 
of moisture to the thirsty land. 

Is it possible for anybody anywhere to contemplate the 
action of this great mechanism, either in its whole or its 
details, and especially in the combination of its whole with 
its details, without being impressed with the conviction that 
it is a wonderful manifestation of Creative design! 

And see how the act of contrivance goes back to the very 
creation of the laws which govern the actions of matter and 
force, contriving that the atoms of matter shall have an un- 
ceasing and intense vibratory movement, which results in 
combining them into molecules and gives the molecules the 
ability to arrange themselves into the forms which we term 
gaseous, liquid, and solid; how each of these forms has its 
own subordinate and special laws, consistent with the general 
plan, but directing the action of that particular form of 
matter; how the special action of one form was contrived for 
the evident purpose of enabling it to cooperate with the spe- 
cial and dissimilar action of another and different form to 
produce important results that could not be produced by 
either alone; how this specialization of action, of function, 
and of effect, is apparent in all known combinations of mat- 
ter and force ; how it happens that, whenever science or acci- 
dent discovers some before-unknown form of matter, or some 
before-unknown action of matter or force, it always turns 
out, upon investigation, to be entirely harmonious with all the 
other forms of matter and force; how, in brief, there is ob- 
servable in the laws of nature the same harmony, the same 
adaptation of each to every part, the same cooperation of all 
to one common end, that we have observed in the structure 
and operation of the universe itself; and thus how the very 



210 MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATURE 

laws of nature indicate Creative contrivance and the action 
of an infinite Mind! 

In other words, see how the energy of the atoms forces 
them into combinations which science calls "molecules" — - 
molecules of iron, of oxygen, of gold, of sodium, and so on — 
all different from each other, but capable when aggre- 
gated of assuming the three forms, gaseous, liquid, and solid ; 
how the atomic forces producing each species of molecule are 
so proportioned that at a given temperature some aggrega- 
tions of molecules are in the solid, some in the liquid, and 
some in the gaseous condition; how this divides the sea, the 
land, and the air from each other, assigning to each its sta- 
tion ; how the air, which is to be the carrier, is stationed over 
land and water, so as to communicate with both, and is fitted 
for its carrying function by reason of its superior movability ; 
how their gaseous condition keeps the air-particles apart so as 
to form intermolecular spaces in which the future cargo of 
water-molecules may be carried from sea to land; how the 
atomic energy of the air aids in liberating the molecules of 
the surface-water and causes the air to become loaded with its 
cargo ; how the forces of heat, electricity and gravitation move 
the air, causing it to carry its cargo over the land and dis- 
charge it, and afterwards transport the unused residue back 
to the ocean again ! Now, this is all one connected and coord- 
inated series of facts, evidently contrived to work together to 
one particular end, the end and object of replenishing and 
vivifying the land. The operations of nature are not deceptive 
and misleading, but truthful and honest — they make known 
her purpose by proceeding to execute it. 

But some critic may say: "You have described, not a 
contrivance, but merely the operation of fixed laws — all these 
things are brought about by the laws of nature." True, Mr. 
Critic, but your remark, perhaps unconsciously, is based upon 



MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATUEE 211 

a fallacy, or, at least, upon a misapplication of fact. For, in 
nature, the contrivance must be sought, not in the execution 
of the law, hut in the law itself. For your benefit, let me illus- 
trate the point by an example. The cooperative combination 
of a gun-barrel, gunpowder, a projectile fitted to the gun- 
barrel, and a firing-apparatus adapted to ignite and explode 
the powder, was a contrivance, as even you must admit, and 
conclusively proves the action of a creative mind. If that 
combination were brought about by the inevitable action of a 
law, it would have been none the less a contrivance; but the 
act of contrivance would have consisted in framing the law 
which brought the combination about. Your fallacy lies in 
stopping at the law, in your search for an explanation of the 
cause of the contrivance, without going on till you find the 
Intelligence which created the law. There is no intelligence 
in matter, nor in force, nor in laws; but only in Him who 
created them all to accomplish His eternal purpose. Nature 
itself has shown that the immediate purpose of that creation 
was the fitting up of a temporary physical residence for Man. 
"What was the ultimate purpose — the purpose for which he was 
provided with a temporary physical residence — is known only 
to his Creator. 

A discovery has recently been made in Germany by Pro- 
fessor Arthur Korn, which, if completely verified, will ex- 
plain the hitherto impenetrable mystery of gravitation. It is 
said to have been already verified to the extent of proving ex- 
perimentally, on a small scale, that his theory is right. I 
quote from a recent publication the following description of 
his discovery: 

"Prof. Korn started with the assumption that gravitation 
is merely the result of the vibration of elastic bodies in an 
inelastic medium. This is a theory based on the fact that the 
earth, sun, and stars, all being elastic matter, are surrounded 



212 MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATURE 

by ether, which science assumes is inelastic and incompress- 
ible. 

"The machine constructed by the professor to produce 
'artificial gravitation' is extremely simple. A metallic globe, 
fitted with a window for observation of what is going on inside 
it, is united by tubes with a cylinder, one end of which is 
closed only by a membrane. To this membrane is attached 
an electro motor, which, by pushing and pulling the mem- 
brane alternately, makes rapid pulsations. The metal globe 
contains two air-filled India rubber balls of different sizes. 
The larger one is fixed firmly to the inside wall of the globe. 
The smaller is free to move whither it likes. 

"The whole apparatus is then filled with water, and the 
motor set to work. Each time the membrane is pressed in, 
the increased water pressure causes the rubber balls to con- 
tract, and each time the membrane returns to its original 
position the relaxed pressure of the water causes the two balls 
to expand. The motor is set working so quickly that these 
pulsations become inconceivably rapid vibrations, and the 
contraction and expansion of the -balls is invisible to the eye. 
As water is practically incompressible, Prof. Korn thus ob- 
tains the conditions he needs — he has two elastic bodies vi- 
brating in an inelastic medium. 

"Then the phenomenon looked for occurs. When the 
vibrations attain a certain speed the smaller ball, impelled by 
a mysterious force, begins slowly to move through the water 
to the larger ball, and gradually increases its speed, exactly 
as the apple observed by Newton increased its speed as it 
fell nearer and nearer to the ground. 

"So far this was merely a puzzling phenomenon. But 
that it was gravitation, and no other force, which drew the 
balls together was soon proved. Measurements showed that 
the bigger ball attracted the smaller exactly in accordance 



MANIFESTED BY THE LAWS OF NATURE 213 

with Newton's law, or in inverse ratio to the square of the dis- 
tance between them. It became, therefore, possible to con- 
struct an exact working model of the solar system in water, 
in which the planets should all move in their appointed paths 
without any visible support, or externally applied power." 

Assuming Professor Korn's theory to be true, what a 
light does it shed upon the secrets of Creation ! For, if it 
be true, the infinitesimal vibrations of the atoms and mole- 
cules which Ave have been considering constitute the means 
by which God organized the universe, set the suns, planets 
and nebulae in their places, imparted to them the mighty 
mechanical movements that we see taking place in the stellar 
depths, prepared the planets for habitation by separating 
their seas, lands and atmosphere, and set in operation the 
mechanism by which the land surfaces are irrigated and 
thus made ready for the advent of physical life ! What an 
infinite plan ! How Godlike in its conception, how simple in 
its complexity, how perfect in its operation ! It encompasses 
and includes everything belonging to inanimate nature, and 
stops only at the origin of what we call "life." That is some- 
thing which no theory of matter can account for ; for, as will 
be hereinafter shown, it is something which, at least in man, 
reaches forward beyond the confines of this earthly existence, 
and takes hold of the eternal hereafter! 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Evidence of Design in the Geological History of the 

Globe. 



GEOLOGICAL PERIODS 



Periods. 


Vertical thickness 
of strata. 


Certain forms of 
animals mentioned. 


5 

Eecent. 
Pleistocene. 

4 

Pliocene. 

Miocene. 
Eocene. 


QUA 
TE 


TERNARY 

Unknown. 


GRO 


UP 

Man. 
Horse. 


RTIARY GROU 

Unknown. 

Unknown. 
Unknown. 


P 

Pliohippus. 

Protohippus. 

Mesohippus. 

Hipparion. 

Anchitherium. 

Orohippus. 

Eohippus. 

Marsupials. 


3 

Cretaceous. 

Jurassic. 

Triassic. 


SEC 


ONDARY 

9,000 feet. 
1,600 feet. 
3,000 feet. 


GRO 


UP 


2 PR 

Permian. 

Carboniferous. 

Devonian. 


IMARY 

Uncertain. 
28,000 feet. 
1,500 feet. 


CROU 


P 

Reptiles. 

Amphibians. 

Fishes. 


1 

Silurian. 

Cambrian. 

Huronian. 

Laurentian. 


PRI 


MORDIAL 

40,000 feet. 
14,600 feet. 
18,000 feet. 
30,000 feet. 


GRO 


UP 



In addition to the contrivance of a vast system of irriga- 
tion to fit our planet for the future abode of plant and animal 
life, other preparations on an enormous scale, and requiring 
for their accomplishment the lapse of an almost inconceivable 

214 



GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE GLOBE 215 

time, were still necessary; for the work of getting a planet 
ready for its occupation as a residence for living physical 
beings is a work of countless ages. The atmosphere was, at 
first, heavily charged with sulphuric acid, as shown by the ex- 
tensive deposits of sulphate of iron, sulphate of lime, and 
other sulphates now existing in the earth's crust; and until 
these were eliminated, and the air thus cleared from one of 
the most energetic corrosives, there was no possibility of life. 
It may also have been charged with nitric acid to a greater or 
less extent; for the derivatives of that acid are everywhere 
found. But its lower regions were practically loaded with 
carbonic acid, the heaviest of all gases, and carbon dioxide, 
one of the most poisonous to air-breathing animals, although 
necessary to plant life. This acid readily united with the 
lime and magnesia held in solution in the seas, and became 
stored up in vast deposits of lime and magnesia carbonates. 
On land, the plants extracted from the dioxide its carbon, and 
subsequently deposited it in the form of coal, leaving the 
nitrogen in the air to dilute it completely for breathing pur- 
poses — oxygen itself being so corrosive that if undiluted it 
would soon destroy everything combustible on the globe. 

Our skeptical critic may, perhaps, interpose the objection 
that all this is guesswork, and, besides, that, if it be true, it 
does not prove the action of Creative design. But the lime- 
stone, dolomite, sulphates, nitrates and coal are not guess- 
work, and their existence in the crust of the earth all over 
the globe can be accounted for on no other theory than that 
above stated. The action of the plants in extracting carbon 
from the air, of the animalculae in extracting carbonate of 
lime from the water, and of running water in forming 
stalactites and stalagmites in the caves, are matters of actual 
observation. Thus, the facts stated are beyond the reach of 
criticism. As for the inference that such facts, in view of 



216 GEOLOGICAL HISTOEY OF THE GLOBE 

their inevitable results, are evidential of the Creator's design, 
that is a matter of opinion. It may be unhesitatingly ad- 
mitted that if considered by themselves alone they do not 
prove design. But they are consistent with it; and, after all 
that we have seen of Creative design in the construction of 
the universe, the forming of planetary systems, the con- 
trivance of the laws of nature, and the creation of a vast 
mechanism on this planet and Mars for the obvious purpose 
of preparing their land-surfaces for the coming of vegetable 
and animal life, I think that the facts stated in this chapter 
may be regarded as confirmatory of the theory of design, and 
that it is at least incumbent on our critic to show that the 
contrary opinion would be the more reasonable. 

Proceeding, therefore, we will consider what happened in 
the vast Laurentian, Huronian, Cambrian, Silurian and 
Devonian periods, during which the earth's crust was hard- 
ened into solid granite, then torn by the terrific action of the 
heated gases and vapors from below and its surface partly 
disintegrated by the acid torrents falling from above. It was 
during these long periods that the slow contraction of the 
earth's mass by radiation of its heat into space first wrinkled 
its surface into mountainous elevations and hollowed out 
beds for the oceans and seas. The temperature of the atmos- 
phere was high, its depth greater than now, and it was 
charged with dense vapors and clouds. The precipitation 
must have been enormous, and the disintegration of the land- 
surfaces into sediment correspondingly great. The sedi- 
mentary deposits of those first five geological periods — mat- 
ter washed down from the land and deposited in the seas and 
lakes — are over one hundred thousand feet in vertical thick- 
ness. Several times did the land and the water surfaces ex- 
change places, through the titanic action of the subterranean 
forces, as is most clearly proved by geological evidence. 



GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE GLOBE 217 

Thus the sedimentary deposits that had been washed down 
into the sea became elevated into land-surfaces, again to be 
partially carried down into the sea together with freshly- 
eroded matter — and this process was repeated over and over. 
During all the time that the land was under the ocean, there 
was, of course, no disintegration and removal of its surface 
as when exposed to the air, but, on the contrary, a constant 
and slow accretion upon it, caused by the arrival of sediment 
from the dry land. As the time during which any large area 
of land was under water was probably as long as the time 
during which it was above water, and possibly many times 
longer, the accumulation of the 100,000 feet of sedimentary 
rock at present out of water was not continuous, and the 
time necessary to effect it cannot even be approximated with 
any certainty by the most careful estimate. It must have 
been at least many many millions of years. 

During all this long period, living forms on the earth had 
advanced no higher there than the fish stage of development ; 
but the waters were teeming with fish, whose skeletons be- 
came accidentally buried in great numbers in the ooze of the 
sea-bottom and in the sedimentary deposits near the shores 
of the sea and lakes. These deposits were ages ago hard- 
ened into solid rock, and raised above the water by the 
gradual rising of the land; and their fossil remains tell us 
the story of Earth's earliest life-ages. It was written on tab- 
lets of stone as if by the hand of the Creator himself. 

In the succeeding Carboniferous and Permian periods, 
amphibians and reptiles made their appearance; and their 
life-history was written and sealed up in the rocks, for the 
benefit of future ages. The climate was still warm and moist, 
conditions most favorable to a luxurious vegetation. Dense 
forests appeared. Hurricanes overthrew the trees from time 
to time; torrential rains swept their fallen trunks and 



218 GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE GLOBE 

branches into the swamps and lakes, and covered them up 
with sand and sediment. In other places swamps of large 
extent were filled up with decaying foliage and afterwards 
buried in the same way. In the slow course of time, gravel, 
sand and mud, hundreds, and in some instances thousands, 
of feet deep were accumulated upon the buried vegetation, 
excluding the air and forming a veritable oven or retort in 
which the vegetable mass was cooked under enormous pressure 
for ages. In the fulness of time, Man appeared on the scene, 
and gaining slowly in knowledge, at last reached a stage of 
civilization in which his spreading industries were checked 
through want of fuel to heat his furnaces and generate his 
steam. At precisely this juncture, the earth opened its 
treasures of coal, and, a few years later, its stores of petro- 
leum and gas, generated in Nature's retort for man's use. 

Following the close of the Permian period, came suc- 
cessively the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods — 
periods which, in their totality, must have occupied many 
millions of years. The earth not being yet ready for occupa- 
tion by man, and many further improvements being necessary 
before it would be ready, Evolution seems to have been given 
permission to amuse herself by whiling away her time in 
developing her Permian reptiles into vast Triassic and 
Jurassic monstrosities, reptiles of such enormous size and 
grotesqueness that we could not believe they ever existed 
were it not for the fact that their fossil skeletons are occa- 
sionally found in the rocks. But there was to be an end to all 
this: the deluge was on its way — not the Noachian deluge, 
a modern affair and mythical at that, but a real deluge, which 
lasted for ages, and seems to have wiped out all existing 
forms of animal life except a few fishes and lizards. It 
was accompanied, at least in the northern hemisphere, by 
intense cold, and would therefore appear to have been caused 



GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE GLOBE 219 

6y the recurrence of one of those great ice-ages, of which we 
have often heard. Professor Croll, from astronomical data, 
sets the last great ice-age at about 250,000 years ago, or prac- 
tically coincident with the close of the Tertiary period; and 
the last preceding one, the most remarkable of all, at a date 
about 4,000,000 years earlier. This may have been the great 
deluge of Cretaceous times, which at the close of the Cre- 
taceous period gave way for the advent of the Eocene 
period, with its birds, marsupials and inchoate horses, and 
opened the road along which Man was to come some four mil- 
lion years later. Of course, we cannot fix these dates with 
certainty — the most that can be said is that, from all known 
data, they appear to be approximately correct. All that we 
know about it is, that the greatest of all the ice-ages appears 
to have been between four and five million years ago; that 
there have been several others, of which the last was at the 
close of the Tertiary age, and, from astronomical data, ap- 
pears to have begun 250,000 years ago and ended about 80,000 
years ago; that there was evidently a long and severe refrig- 
eration of the northern hemisphere in the Cretaceous period, 
which practically closed the old chapter of life-history on this 
planet and opened a new one ; and that the period of 4,000,- 
000 years from the great ice-age to the end of the Tertiary 
is apparently in substantial agreement both with Mr. Croll 
and Geology. 

The purification of the earth's atmosphere by separating 
and storing up its sulphur and carbon in the ground; the 
vast deposits of coal and petroleum laid away and covered 
up during the long carboniferous period, as if for the use 
of man in the far-distant future; and the making of a 
permanent stone record of the earth's life-history and of 
the geological events that have occurred since the planet 
became covered with a hard crust : are the facts of chief 



220 GEOLOGICAL HISTOEY OF THE GLOBE 

interest in the long category briefly sketched above. As 
already remarked, they do not prove design but they are 
consistent with it, and, in connection with the many con- 
clusive evidences of Creative contrivance to which our atten- 
tion has been directed, they are particularly significant of 
God's paternal interest in Man. It matters not to the 
dumb beast that treasures of coal, iron, and petroleum are 
laid up in the crust of the earth; for he could not use them 
even if he knew of it; nor that an authentic history of the 
globe has been graven upon imperishable tablets and left 
accessible to all who can decipher the inscription; for he 
never can read it; nor that a revelation of God's existence 
has been written in nature and nature's laws; for he is as 
incapable of conceiving it as of conceiving the grandeur of 
Niagara or the beauty of a glorious sunset. All these things 
are for man alone. 

Thus, in a general review of nature's works, we find them 
eloquent of creative design — eloquent most strangely and 
inexplicably, if we are to assume that there was, as a matter 
of fact, no design whatever in nature or nature's works. 
How is it that we find everywhere in nature the most amazing 
displays of mechanical contrivance, if there was no design 
involved in it? How was it that nature could create, in 
the rattlesnake, a most complicated and elaborate mechanism 
(1) in order to utilize a liquid poison for a certain purpose; 
at the same time, and in the same animal, create another 
complicated and elaborate mechanism (2) for distilling such 
a poison; also, at the same time and in the same animal, 
create a third mechanism (3) for the self-evident purpose 
of storing up that poison till it should be needed and then 
delivering it from its storehouse for use; also (4) connect 
mechanism (1) and mechanism (3) so that they could 
cooperate together to discharge the poison formed by mechan- 



GEOLOGICAL HISTOEY OF THE GLOBE 221 

ism (2) into a wound made by mechanism (1) ; and finally, 
by a special mechanism (5) created exclusively for the pur- 
pose could put under the control of the animal's brain, the 
power successfully to operate the whole, so that the animal 
could, at will, by mechanism (1) inflict the wound, and 
could, simultaneously by mechanism (5) direct mechanism 
(3) to cooperate in that particular act or not — and all this 
without the exercise of the mental faculty of contrivance 
or design? There is no possible question about the facts — 
the only question is: Do these facts prove design or not? 
If they do not, then human reason is worthless; if they do, 
then God created and governs the universe. I see no possible 
escape from this conclusion. 

And this conclusion explains all the other instances of 
mechanical or chemical contrivance that we see in nature's 
works. It explains the vast mechanism that formed and 
guides the suns and their planets; the lesser, but still vast, 
mechanism that prepared this planet and Mars, and probably 
thousands or millions of unseen planets, for their occupation 
by intelligent physical beings; and the apparent purpose of 
the storing up, in the crust of the earth, of the supplies of 
coal, iron, and petroleum, et cetera, that we find so service- 
able, and of the preparation and preservation of materials 
from which to learn the geological and life history of the 
planet on which we live. When we contemplate the universe 
itself, we are constrained to exclaim, with Pope, that 

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
Whose body nature is, and God, the soul"; 

but when we see in it and its laws indubitable proofs of con- 
trivance in both, we recognize in nature, not the body of the 
Deity, but an inscrutable Divine purpose connected in some 
way with Man. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

Science Unable to Meet These Proofs. 

There are those who mistakenly suppose that science 
has successfully met and. controverted all of the arguments 
and proofs outlined in the preceding pages. Nothing could 
be farther from the truth. Science has furnished these 
proofs and arguments instead of controverting them. Science 
does not, as yet, deal with Eeligion or the things of the 
spirit, but restricts itself to the study of the phenomena of 
nature, endeavoring to ascertain what are the actual facts 
of nature, proved or provable. It is indifferent to the 
theological consequences of those facts, leaving all questions 
of that kind to be investigated and determined by other 
departments of learning. Within its own field of research 
it rigidly requires that things are not to be accepted as 
true until they have been proved to be true; outside of its 
own field of research it has nothing to say. When, therefore, 
a scientist professes to accept or reject any theological belief 
or opinion, he docs it, not in the name of science, but as a 
private individual, for whose opinions on such subjects 
science assumes no responsibility. 

The existence of God is a subject which is manifestly not 
directly within the purview of scientific research. But if the 
facts of nature, as verified by science, are such that they 
clearly and unmistakably show that their original production 
involved the exercise of the mental faculty of contrivance or 
invention, then the existence of an intelligent Creator is 
positively proved by them, and science, which has investi- 

222 



SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PKOOFS 223 

gated and verified the proofs, is bound to accept it as a 
final conclusion of the question. 

I have taken as the basis of this argument, facts abso- 
lutely verified by scientific research. Any person who pos- 
sessess ordinary intelligence can see that they prove con- 
trivance and the existence of God as the contriver- — unless, 
indeed, they can one and all be fully accounted for on some 
other reasonable hypothesis. 

A few persons profess to believe that they are due to 
natural causes alone — to something termed Evolution. Un- 
fortunately the word evolution, as applied with relation 
to nature's work, has come to be used with two very different 
meanings. In the popular acceptance of the term for the 
last fifty years, it means the theory proposed by Charles Dar- 
win, that the animal and plant species have, through indi- 
vidual growth and development, gradually evolved from their 
primordial life-germ or germs and become differentiated into 
species and genera ; and that heredity, a natural tendency to 
slight successive variations, the influence of their environ- 
ment, and the survival of the fittest, are the causes which have 
differentiated them from each other. Prior to 1857, and 
by careless writers and speakers since, the term Evolution, as 
applied to the works of nature, was not restricted to animals 
and plants, but embraced everything in the universe, — suns 
and planets, nebulae and comets, as well as living things. 
"Evolution," as applied in the broad sense last referred to, 
assumes the eternal duration of matter and force, and the 
"spontaneous generation" of all natural forms of non-living 
matter, as well as life itself and the primordial germs of 
life; and thus rejects the idea of God, as being a mere sur- 
vival of the superstitions of ancient ignorance. As applied, 
however, in the sense first referred to — the sense of "Darwin- 
ism" — it does not assume to account for the origin of life as 



224 SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PEOOFS 

a natural phenomenon, nor does it reject the idea of God, the 
Creator, as inconsistent with intelligent belief. 

No one would have been more surprised than Darwin him- 
self to be told that the principle of evolution to which he gave 
the support of his great authority blots out God from the uni- 
verse, and installs in His place mere blind matter and force. 
He expressly recognized "life with its several powers" as 
"having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few 
forms or into one," and the so-called laws of nature as "laws 
impressed on matter by the Creator." In giving his theory of 
the origin of species the broadest expression of its principle, be 
characterized it as "Growth with Beproduction." He made no 
pretensions that his theory embraced anything other than 
living animals and plants. 

Darwin was not an atheist. He believed that God was 
the author of life, and that Evolution was merely the mode 
in which He chose to develop the present forms of animal 
and plant life from past forms. The last words of his 
great work on "The Origin of Species" were as follows: 

"Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, 
the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, 
namely, the production of the higher animals, directly fol- 
lows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several 
powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into 
a few forms, or into one; and that, whilst this planet has 
gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from 
so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and 
most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." 

And he says, a few pages earlier : "Science as yet throws 
no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin 
of life." 

Huxley, the great protagonist of the Darwinian theory, 
and one of the ablest scientists of modern times, did not 



SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PEOOFS 225 

endorse Darwin's opinions in all respects. Whatever views 
he may have held as to the existence of God or the origin 
of life, he effectually concealed them by avoiding public dis- 
cussion on those subjects, and by calling himself, as to 
all theological questions, an agnostic or "know-nothing." 
He admitted "the strong conviction that the cosmic proc- 
ess is rational, and the faith that, throughout all duration, 
unbroken order has reigned in the universe"; and several 
times expressed his opinion that a belief in God is not 
logically antagonistic to evolution. 1 The main points on 
which he differed from his friend Darwin, were, (1) whether 
nature does not sometimes, in the development of animal 
or plant species, take a sudden jump from one stage of 
evolution to another, instead of bridging-over the intervening 
space by a -consecutive series of slight modifications; and 
(2) whether the successive advances in the development of 
an animal or plant species are connected or discrete — 
that is to say, whether each advance holds to the next pre- 
ceding one the relation of effect to cause or, on the other 
hand, may be due to a cause entirely independent of the 
preceding . advance. This view he expressed as follows : 
"When I speak of transition I do not in the least mean 
to say that one species turned into a second to develop 
thereafter into a third. What I mean is, that the charac- 
ters of the second are intermediate between those of the 
two others. It is as if I were to say that such and such a 
cathedral, Canterbury for example, is a transition between 
York minster and AVestminster Abbey. No one would 
imagine on hearing the word transition, that a transmuta- 
tion of these buildings actually took place from one into 
another." 1 

1 Life of Huxley, by his son, Vol. 2, pp. 316, 320, 321. 
1 Life of Huxley, by his son, Vol. II, p. 428. 



226 SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PROOFS 

On the other point, he wrote as follows to Mr. Bateson, 
February 20, 1894: "I see yon are inclined to advocate 
the possibility of considerable 'saltus' 2 on the part of Dame 
Nature in her variations. I always took the same view, much 
to Mr. Darwin's disgust, and we used to debate it." 3 He 
was also less confident than Darwin of the all-important part 
played by "natural selection" in the differentiation of 
species. 4 

Thus, the man who was the original propounder of the 
Darwinian theory, and the man who was its foremost and 
far-ablest advocate and defender, each of them learned, in- 
capable of a false suggestion and seeking only the discovery 
and dissemination of scientific truth, were considerably at 
variance on vital matters involved in that theory; and 
united only in the belief that, in the growth and develop- 
ment of animals and plants from their primordial life- 
germ to their present conditions, evolution has played a 
conspicuous part. Other leading evolutionists are in sub- 
stantial accordance with them, both as to the truth of the 
main proposition and as to the inherent difficulties en- 
countered in all attempts to establish it by conclusive evi- 
dence. These difficulties are four in number, and some of 
them seem insuperable. First: There are wide gaps in 
the chain of evidence. Its links do not connect with each 
other, and there is no way of bridging the chasm except 
by unproved assumption — and assumption in place of evi- 
dence is abhorrent to the scientific mind. There are gaps 
of millions of years in the succession of evolutionary steps. 
Second: There are known facts which evolution cannot 
rationally account for — innumerable ones. Third: There 

2 Saltus, a jump. 

8 Life of Huxley, p. 394. 

4 Wilson 's Chapters on Evolution, p. 6. 



SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PEOOFS 227 

are evidences of some unknown but deeper and more far- 
reaching principle underlying that of evolution — some un- 
known cause operating to disturb and thwart all calcula- 
tion. Fourth: Lateral buds suddenly appear, without any 
apparent cause, on the trunk or branches of the evolutionary 
tree of life, and proceed to develop into new and divergent 
forms. 

The progress of life along the path of development has 
not been at a uniform rate, but has been subject to great 
irregularities of movement. One of the ablest authorities 
on the subject, a pronounced evolutionist, Nicholson, says 
(Ancient Life History, p. 373) : "On the other hand, there 
are facts which point clearly to the existence of some law 
other than that of Evolution, and probably of a deeper and 
more far-reaching character. Upon no theory of evolution 
can we find a satisfactory explanation for the constant intro- 
duction throughout geological time of new forms of life, 
which do not appear to have been preceded by pre-existent 
allied t} r pes. The G-raptolites and Trilobites have no known 
predecessors, and leave no known successors. The Insects 
appear suddenly in the Devonian, and the Arachnids and 
Myriapods in the Carboniferous, under well-differentiated 
and highly specialized types. The Dibranchiate Cephalopods 
appear with equal suddenness in the older Mesozoic deposits 
and no known type of the Palaeozoic period can be pointed 
to as a possible ancestor. The Hippuritidce of the Cretaceous 
burst into a varied life to all appearances immediately after 
their first introduction. The wonderful Dicotyledonous flora 
of the upper Cretaceous period similarly surprises us with- 
out any prophetic annunciation from the older Jurassic. 

"Many other instances could be given; but enough has 
been said to show that there is a good deal to be said on 



228 SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PROOFS 

both sides and that the problem is one environed with pro- 
found difficulties." 

Le Conte, who when living, was one of the foremost 
American exponents of evolution, says (Evolution, p. 76) : 
"The great objections to the sufficiency of the theory of 
evolution, as left by Darwin, are two-fold: (1) While 
natural selection accounts completely for the formation of 
useful structures or adaptive modifications, and therefore 
for differences characterizing classes, orders, families, and 
even genera — for all these are all adaptive — it can not com- 
pletely account for those constituting species; for these con- 
sist mostly of trivial differences of coloration, relative pro- 
portion of parts, which are of no perceivable use in the 
struggle for life, and therefore could not be preserved and 
integrated by natural selections. Therefore, according to 
Romanes, natural selection is a theory of origin of adaptive 
structures rather than of origin of species. Comparing to 
a growing tree, once admit lateral buds started, and natural 
selection completely accounts for the growth in different 
directions, and therefore for the profuse ramifications; but 
the origin of the lateral buds is not explained." 

This is a point to which I have repeatedly called atten- 
tion hereinbefore while discussing the appearance in various 
animals and plants of new structures and new functions 
that cannot be accounted for on the Darwinian theory. It 
is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the fact; for 
if even a single instance of the sudden appearance and per- 
petuation of a new form be established beyond controversy, 
then evolution alone is no longer sufficient to account for 
the origin of species, or of races; then the hypothesis of 
"missing links" is no longer necessary to explain the devel- 
opment of animal or plant life ; then the oft repeated excuse 
that the great gaps plainly observable in the geological 



SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PEOOFS 229 

sequence of development are merely due to accidental defects 
in the record and not to any irregularity in the sequence 
itself, is no longer tenable. 

Such an instance has already appeared. I will let Wilson 
tell the story, for he is an enthusiastic evolutionist, who will 
not be charged with any secret hostility to Mr. Darwin's 
theory, and his testimony is supplemented by that of Huxley, 
the foremost champion of that theory. He gives the facts 
as follows ("Chapters on Evolution/' pp. 147, 148) : 

"Nor must we forget one all-important consideration, 
which, according to Professor Huxley, Mr. Darwin himself 
somewhat overlooked. It is a frequent fact, hereafter to 
be noted, that, despite the Linnaean aphorism Natura non 
facit saltum, 1 Nature may and sometimes does take not 
merely a jump, but a running leap from one species to 
another. What would be thought of the history of the 
Ancon or Otter sheep, which about the close of the last 
century 2 was born of an ordinary ewe as the progeny 
of an equally commonplace male parent: both, along with 
fourteen other ewes, having been the property of a certain 
Seth Wright, a Massachusettts farmer? This Ancon sheep 
differed most materially from its parents and from the ovine 
race at large, in possessing a large body and proportionately 
short legs. For sundry reasons connected with the over- 
lively habits of his long-legged sheep in leaping over their 
fences, Wright from this one Ancon sheep, in due time, 
bred a whole flock of pure Otter sheep; the breed being 
allowed to die out in the introduction of the Merino sheep. 
Presuming that, in ignorance of its true and sudden origin, 
the history of the Ancon breed had been made the subject 
of biological speculation, how would the demand for 'miss- 

1 Nature does not make a jump. 

2 The eighteenth century. 



230 SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PROOFS 

ing links/ and the evolutionist's inability to reply to the 
demand, have been construed? Simply as against the trans- 
mutation of the sheep species of race, and as against the 
origin of the Ancon by the variation and modification of 
the ordinary sheep. And yet the Ancon race had certainly 
its beginning in the sudden modification of an existing race 
such as utterly precluded the possibility of any 'connecting 
links' having been developed and required." 

Many other instances have been known, where, in the 
course of regular generations, new organs and forms have 
suddenly and unaccountably appeared. For example, prob- 
ably one man in every million has six fingers on each 
hand, or six toes on each foot; although, for millions of 
years in the past, the general rule, both for man and monkey, 
was to allow but five digits on each limb. These superfluous 
fingers or toes tend to appear in the same families or their 
descendants, evincing an effort of Nature, partially success- 
ful, to transmit them by heredity. In other instances, 
Nature has developed two hearts, or other unusual number 
of organs. Various "monstrosities," so-called because they 
are out of the usual order of nature, also appear. 

These phenomena, inexplicable on the Darwinian Theory, 
have now, fifty years after the publication of "The Origin 
of Species," become so well-known, and are so obviously 
hostile to one of the fundamental assumptions of that theory, 
that Darwinians have been put to it to invent some new 
hypothesis by which to explain them. Darwin's explanation 
of heredity by pangenesis 1 would not answer the purpose; 
because it is inconsistent with abrupt variations from the 

1 Pangenesis: The hypothesis that the characteristics of both 
parents are transmitted to the child by means of material atoms, 
derived from each cell in both parents, and developed in the child. 
It assumes that the reproductive cell is made up of minute units 
derived from and representing each part or organ of the entire body. 



SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PBOOFS 231 

parental form, and therefore cannot account for lateral buds 
on the family tree. Hence arose DeVries' hypothesis of 
mutations, 1 published in 1892 — a hypothesis invented for 
the purpose of supplying the defect in Darwin's pangenesis 
hypothesis. But the whole thing, including both pangenesis 
and mutations, is mere speculation and guess work, which 
will probably be superseded within a few years by some 
other ingenious hypothesis. Its main interest to us, in the 
present discussion, lies in the fact that the exponents of 
Darwinism are obliged to admit that nature does some- 
times make "jumps," and that they have not been able to 
agree among themselves upon any hypothesis by which to 
explain them. 

Not only has evolution failed to account for the appear- 
ance of structures and forms through the agency of natural 
selection, but it has been equally unable to account for the 
disappearance of useful structures in plain violation of Dar- 
win's laws. (See Ante, Chapter 11, Wilson's compendium 
of Darwin's Theory — paragraph "Sixthly"). There are 
several instances where useful organs have become atrophied; 
or have disappeared from the species in direct violation of 
the laws of evolution. Thus Wilson says ("Chapters on 
Evolution," Am. Ed. p. 362) : 

"In most snakes only one lung is fully developed as a 
rule, the companion organ being rudimentary and degen- 
erate. In birds the egg-producing organs are similarly de- 
veloped on one side only. How degeneration should be thus 
partial, and affect one-half of an animal's frame, so to speak, 

Mutation: The hypothesis that the germ cell or plasm contains 
"unit characters' ' which determine the characteristics of the off- 
spring; and that by the acquisition or loss of one or more of the 
unit characters the offspring and its progeny may exhibit character- 
istics not found in either of its parents. This hypothesis, therefore, 
aims to provide for abrupt breaks in the continuity of the line of 
descent, as well as for the gradual variation of its characteristics. 



232 SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PROOFS 

is very hard to discover. External conditions of life and 
the influence of surroundings could apparently possess little 
effect in producing such an unsymmetrical retrogression of 
parts. Most probably we shall find the solution of such 
conditions to exist within the operation of some deepseated 
law of the living constitution, and in the effects of that law 
in moulding or even, contorting the animal." 

Here is the second time that the principle of natural 
selection has proved itself unable to account for develop- 
mental facts and that the evolutionist has been compelled 
to assume the existence of a deeper and more far-reaching 
law than evolution, in order to explain them ; the first time, 
it was necessary in order to explain the appearance of new 
structures ; the second time, in order to explain the disappear- 
ance of old structures. In view of these facts, it is obvious 
that there are serious defects and insufficiencies in the doctrine 
of Evolution that gravely impair its authority and weaken its 
hold upon our credulity. In view of all these facts, it can 
only be said that, whilst Darwin's theory is the best theory 
of evolution that has been hitherto put forth for public 
acceptance, yet it is manifestly subject to grave defects and 
uncertainties, and that the world still waits for a theory 
which will reconcile everything in Nature. 

Logically, the radical defect of the Darwinian theory 
is that its facts are not sequentially coherent, but have to 
be pieced together by intervening assumptions or guesses. 
It is an ascending stairway from monad to man, in which 
the "treads" are facts, and the "risers" assumptions. Be- 
tween every two proximate facts there stands an assumption 
or guess upon which rests the more elevated of the two 
facts, with no other support. Eemove the assumptions, and 
the facts float upon air. Thus, in the ascending stairway 
of Darwinism, the reptile functionates as one of the steps, 



SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PROOFS 233 

and the mammal as the next step above; and there is 
nothing so connect them, except a mere guess that the mam- 
mal was in some unknown way evolved out of the reptile, 
and is his legitimate successor and heir. It is obvious that 
such a stairway affords a very uncertain means of ascent. 
But, as if to render it still more uncertain, here comes Mr. 
Huxley, the foremost disciple of Darwin, and declares that 
there is no connection whatever between the two steps — 
that mammal did not grow out of reptile, any more than 
Westminster Abbey grew out of York Cathedral — and gives 
us to understand that the relationship is simply that of 
sequence in time. Well may one exclaim : What is the 
truth that lies at the bottom of this well of speculative 
opinion ? 

There is at least this truth in the speculations of Dar- 
win — the truth that slight variations between parents and 
offspring normally occur, and that the cumulative effects 
of successive variations may, in some instances, become im- 
portant. Such variation is normal — at all events, with 
sexual reproduction — in consequence of the offspring inherit- 
ing the peculiarities of both parents, and being therefore, 
so to speak, a literal copy of neither. Even in asexual repro- 
duction, variation may probably occur through the influence 
of environment upon the parent. 1 But, as we have seen 
in the case of the Ancon sheep, sudden and wide variations 
sometimes occur, that are not due to any known cause, and 
are not in harmony with Mr. Darwin's theory. No known 
or even hypothetical scientific law accounts for them. It 
is just as reasonable to assume that the wide gulf between 
reptile and mammal was bridged by one of these sudden 

1 1 make no account of the influence of the mother 's imagination 
upon the unborn child, resulting in birth-marks, monstrosities, etc., 
since these malformations are not, so far as I am informed, handed 
on to the child's posterity. 



234 SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PROOFS 

and unaccountable variations, as it is to suppose that it 
was caused by the slow progressive cumulation of thousands 
of slight changes of form and structure. Indeed, knowing 
that such "jumps" do occur, and more than one of them 
has occurred in recent times, it is far more probable that 
many of them occurred in the long period — millions of 
years — between the reptilian and the mammalian ages than 
that none occurred. These "jumps" would completely ac- 
count for all the "buds" that have appeared on the tree 
of life in past ages; but they destroy the credibility of Mr. 
Darwin's theory as a theory which undertakes to explain the 
ascent of man from monad as resulting from evolution alone. 
And the uncertainty with which they affect the reasoning 
mind as to the substantial verity of his theory is increased 
by the many other discrepancies between that theory and 
known facts; for example, that organs have disappeared 
from birds and snakes in direct violation of the fundamental 
principles of his theory. 

But Mr. Darwin's theory must be accepted as the best 
guess yet made upon the subject of the development of ani- 
mals and plants — the best, because it is, at least, partially 
supported by fact. Nobody can doubt that environment, 
the progressive cumulation of slight natural variations, 
heredity, and the sifting-out effect of what he calls "natural 
selection," have had an important influence on the produc- 
tion of the results which we see around us. To have dis- 
covered the correlation and meaning of these truths is 
enough to entitle him to immortality, as a thinker and a 
man of science, even though they have no bearing upon the 
deeper problems of human life. 

The second and broader theory of evolution above referred 
to, does not, like the Darwinian theory content itself with 
trying to explain the development of animal and plant forms, 



SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PROOFS 235 

but boldly assumes that all forms of matter, living and 
non-living, are the outgrowths of evolution. It looks upon 
matter and force as having, from eternity, contained "the 
promise and the potency" of all things that were to come. 
Its votaries constitute the class to which I have several 
times referred as "ultra-evolutionists" or "radical evolu- 
tionists." 

Since the year 1859, supporters of this form of evolution 
have generally adopted Darwin's theory as a subordinate 
portion of their cult; and from this circumstance has arisen 
much confusion in the public mind as to what "Darwinism" 
really means. There is no law to prevent a person who 
believes in "spontaneous generation" from calling himself 
a disciple of Darwin, nor even from doing, like Professor 
Haeckel, important scientific work in support of Darwin's 
theory of the development of animals and plants; but it 
is not surprising that thousands should be led by the union 
of such beliefs, in the persons of distinguished scientific 
men, to ascribe to the Darwinian Theory teachings far more 
radical than that of the natural transition of species. Yet, 
in brief terms, the natural transition of species comprehends 
all there is in "Darwinism." 

The distinguishing features characteristic of the school 
of ultra-evolutionists, are (1) that they believe that life 
on this planet originated by what they call "spontaneous 
generation"; (2) that they deny that matter and force were 
created and affirm them to be self-existent; and (3) that 
they hold evolution to be the general law of the universe. 
None of these three features has a place in Darwinism, nor 
any place in science. They are mere idle speculation. If 
they were true, they could neither be proved nor disproved. 
There is no evidence even tending to prove them. Hence, 
they do not rise to the dignity of a theory; for science does 



236 SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PROOFS 

not recognize guesses and speculations as "theories," unless 
they are founded upon evidence which gives them at least 
an appearance of probability. 

The leading exponent of the ultra-evolutionists is Pro- 
fessor Ernst Haeckel, of the University of Jena. In his 
work on "The Evolution of Man/' Vol. 2, pp. 30, 31, 32, 
(Appleton's Am. Edition), he gives a condensed statement 
of what he understands the term "spontaneous generation" 
to imply. I will quote the whole of it here, in order that 
my readers may see, from his own hand, upon what a 
fantastic structure of mere guesses and assumptions he takes 
his stand as the trumpeter of ultra-evolution. He says: 

"Here I will only say a few words on the obscure ques- 
tion as to the first origin of life, and will answer it so far 
as it concerns our radical conception of the history of organic 
evolution. In the definite, limited sense in which I main- 
tain spontaneous generation (generatio spontanea) and as- 
sume it as a necessary hypothesis in explanation of the first 
beginning of life upon the earth, it merely implies the 
origin of Monera from inorganic carbon compounds. When 
animated bodies first appeared on our planet, previously 
without life, there must, in the first place, have been formed, 
(notice the assumption, "must have been formed"), by a 
process purely chemical, from purely inorganic carbon com- 
binations, that very complex nitrogenized carbon compound 
which we call plasson, or "primitive slime," and which is 
the oldest material substance in which all vital activities 
are embodied. In the lowest depths of the sea such homo- 
geneous amorphous protoplasm probably still lives, in its 
simplest character, under the name of Bathybius. Each 
individual living particle of this structureless mass is called 
Moneron. The oldest Monera originated in the sea by 
spontaneous generation, just as crystals form in the matrix. 



SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PEOOFS 237 

This assumption is required by the demand of the human 
understanding for causality. For when, on the one hand, 
we reflect that the whole inorganic history of the earth 
proceeds in accordance with mechanical laws and without 
any intervention by creative power, and when, on the other 
hand, we consider that the entire organic history of the world 
is also determined by similar mechanical laws; when we 
see that no supernatural interference by a creative power 
is needed for the production of the various organisms; then 
it is certainly quite inconsistent to assume such supernatural 
creative interference for the first production of life upon 
our globe. At all events we, as investigators of nature, are 
bound at least to attempt a natural explanation. 

"At present, the much agitated question of spontaneous 
generation appears very intricate, because a large number 
of very different, and in part quite absurd, conceptions are 
included under the term "spontaneous generation/' and be- 
cause some have supposed that the problem could be solved 
by the crudest experiments. The doctrine of spontaneous 
generation cannot be experimentally refuted. For each 
experiment with a negative result merely proves that under 
the condition (always very artificial) supplied by us, no 
organism has been produced from inorganic combinations. 
Neither can the theory of spontaneous generation be experi- 
mentally proved unless great difficulties are overcome; and 
even if in our own time Monera were produced daily by 
spontaneous generation — as is very possible — yet the abso- 
lute empiric proof of this fact would be extremely difficult 
— indeed, in most cases impossible. He, however, who does 
not assume a spontaneous generation of Monera, in the sense 
here indicated, to explain the first origin of life upon the 
earth, has no other resource but to believe in a supernatural 
miracle; and this, in fact, is the questionable standpoint 



238 SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PEOOFS 

still taken by many so-called 'exact naturalists/ who thus 
renounce their own reason." 

The above exposition of Professor Haeckel's spontaneous 
generation doctrine and his reasons for publishing it to the 
world, is one of the most curious things that I have ever 
found in a grave scientific work — suggesting rather the 
exuberant fancy of a Shakespeare than the profound cogi- 
tation of a philosopher or scientist. His "Monera" (which 
he elsewhere refers to as "structureless organisms without 
organs/' p. 38) were as purely imaginary as Puck or Ariel. 
His "Bathybius," upon being subjected to chemical tests, 
was proved to be nothing more than a lifeless inorganic mud 
or ooze, at the humiliating exposure of which an unfeeling 
scientific world has hardly yet ceased laughing. 1 His 
reasons for publishing to the world his spontaneous genera- 
tion guess are, that it is "inconsistent to assume" creative 
interference for the first production of life upon our globe, 
and therefore that "at all events we (the scientists), as 
investigators of nature, are bound at least to attempt a 
natural explanation/' The illogical character of his reason- 
ing becomes still more obvious when we read (at the bottom 
of p. 27 of the same work) an affirmation "that the oldest 
ancestors of the human race (as of the whole animal king- 
dom) were simple amoeboid cells," and, on p. 33, read that 
"even in the production of the simplest cell we must not 
assume the process of spontaneous generation. For even 
the simplest cell consists of at least two distinct constituent 

1 From erroneous reports, even the cautious and circumspect Hux- 
ley was fooled into believing that Bathybius was a living substance; 
but after chemistry had proved that it was not, he publicly retracted 
that opinion, and privately acknowledged himself very much ashamed 
of it. But he never believed it to have any bearing on the origin of 
life, nor on the Darwinian Theory. {Life, Vol. 2.) 



SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PBOOFS 239 

parts: the inner and firmer kernel (nucleus), and the softer 
cell-substance or protoplasm/'* 

I have already (ch. III.) referred to the chemical im- 
possibility of spontaneous generation. Fully convinced of 
such impossibility, Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) 
suggested, many years ago, that life may have been brought 
to the earth from some other planet, upon or in a meteoric 
fragment projected from its surface by volcanic action or 
otherwise. How any living thing could withstand the heat 
of a volcano, the shock of such an explosion, and a long 
journey through the intense cold»of space (more than 400° 
below zero, F.), all acting in immediate sequence, has never 
been explained. The absurd conjecture no longer has any 
supporters. Within a year or two past, Professor Svante 
Arrhenius, of the Physico-Chemical Nobel Institute at 
Stockholm, has suggested that life-germs almost infinites- 
imally smaller in size and weight than an atom of hydrogen 
(the lightest physical substance known) might be driven 
through space by the impact of electrons shot off from the 
sun, and might have brought life with them. But we know 
of no such infinitesimal life-germs; «all naturalists agree 
that the smallest living thing known is at least as large 
as a cell — and a cell contains millions of atoms. Then, too, 
there are the same serious difficulties that wrecked Lord 
Kelvin's meteoric Irypothesis. So the Arrhenian hypothesis 
cannot be pleaded as an argument against the creative 
power of the Almighty — at least not at present, nor until 
some of the supposed infinitesimal life-germs shall have been 
corraled, examined, and duly certified. Nor, if the specu- 
lative hypotheses of Lord Kelvin and Arrhenius were ad- 
mitted to be true, would they account for the origin of life, 
but only for its transportation from some other planet to 
this. 



240 SCIENCE UNABLE TO MEET PROOFS 

In short, there is nothing known which justifies the 
sceptic's hope that science will ever be able to answer or 
explain away the clearly-conclusive proofs of God's existence 
and Creative power. Every new discovery of science, when 
it comes to be fully understood, only adds to the number 
of these proofs. The evidence is a thousand times stronger 
today than in Paley's time, because science knows a thousand 
times more now than it did then. Not the least of what 
it now knows is its own powerlessness to meet nature's proofs 
of God. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 
The Human Brain - . 

The crowning evidence of Creative intelligence in the 
planning and construction of man's physical body is fur- 
nished in the human brain. It is not possible adequately 
to describe the marvels of inventive ingenuity and con- 
structive skill exhibited in that organ, which surpasses be- 
yond comparison or even conception all the inventions of man 
and, if one may say it without irreverence, seems to have 
been intended as God's masterpiece of creative contrivance. 
It is the organ through which the mind communicates with 
the surrounding world — the temporary residence of the human 
soul — and the wonderful care displayed in fitting it up for 
such residence attests in the highest degree the dignity of 
its illustrious occupant. 

The brain is a large organ, consisting of several con- 
nected parts or divisions, of which the three principal ones 
are the cerebrum, or upper and anterior portion, the cere- 
bellum, or lower and posterior portion, and the portion called 
the medulla oblongata, which is continuous with the upper 
end of the spinal cord and has not inaptly been called the 
"brain-stem," and sometimes the "bulb." The brain, spinal 
cord and nerves are each composed of two different sub- 
stances, which, from their color, have come to be known 
as gray matter and white matter — the white matter largely 
predominating. 

The cerebrum constitutes about seven-eights of the brain- 
structure, and is formed in two equal divisions termed the 
right and left hemispheres. 

241 



242 



THE HUMAN BEAIN 



At the bottom of the narrow space intervening between 
them, is the corpus callosum, a body of white matter about 
four inches in length, whose functions are unknown. From 
the fact that in several instances it has been found after 
death to have been entirely wanting, and yet the de- 
cedent, during life, had given no indication that anything 
was wrong with his brain, it may be assumed for the pur- 




Fig. 17. — View of the Top of the Brain. 1, 1. — Hemispheres. 2, 2, — Longi- 
tudinal fissure. 



poses of this discussion that it is a mere spacing-block to 
prevent the two hemispheres from contact with each other. 
The interior of the two hemispheres is composed of white 
matter, and is covered with a bark or "cortex" of gray 
matter about one-tenth of an inch in thickness. The cer- 
ebrum is so formed that its surface exhibits irregular ridges 
anr folds termed "convolutions" — an arrangement which 



THE HUMAN BEAIN 243 

more than doubles the superficial extent of the cortex. As 
seen under the microscope, the white matter is composed 
of exceedingly minute threads, and the gray matter, of 
cells so small that the total number contained in the cortex 
has been ascertained to be approximately 9,200,000,000. 
The cortex, in each hemisphere, is traversed in every direc- 
tion by millions of nerve-fibres, which connect the cells to 
each other, enabling them to act independently or in con- 
cert, as individuals or as groups. The cerebral cortex is the 
seat of the mind and the will. It is "the seat of those 
activities which we describe as intelligence — including states 
of consciousness, acts or idea-formation and volition, and 
the phenomenon of memory." 1 It also controls the volun- 
tary action of the organs of the body. In the physical 
expression of a single thought, whether in word or action, 
probably many of these connected cells take part; and as 
the possible permutations of these millions of cells is prac- 
tically infinite in number, the power of the brain to vary 
the shades of expression in thought or action is practically 
infinite. 

The cerebellum is a comparatively small division of the 
brain, whose function is to coordinate and harmonize the 
complicated motor-apparatus and ensure the regularity of 
its action. It has no convolutions and no localized tracts 
or subdivisions, but acts as a whole. "Its removal or dis- 
organization by disease is also generally unaccompanied by 
loss or disorder of sensibility; animals from which it is re- 
moved smell, see, hear, and feel pain to all appearances as 
perfectly as before. It cannot, therefore, be regarded as the 
principal organ of sensation" (Flourens: Magendie). But 
with its removal, a very profound disturbance in motor func- 
tions occurs, without loss of the power of perceiving sensa- 

1 Kirke's Physiology, sixth Am. Edition. 



244 THE HUMAN BEAIN 

tions or of making voluntary efforts, but with loss of the abil- 
ity properly to direct the action of the muscles. "It is not 
the source of voluntary movements, although it belongs to 
the motor apparatus, but it is the organ for the coordination 
of the voluntary movements, or for the excitement of the com- 
bined action of the muscles" (Kirke). 

The great mass of white matter constituting the interior 
of the brain and a large element of the entire nervous system, 
is distinguished by its function of transmitting (as the thin 
cerebral covering of gray cortical matter is distinguished by 
the fact that it is that part of the brain in which originate) 
the impulses or vibrations that make up the sum total of brain 
activity. The interior mass of white matter in the cerebrum 
is traversed by millions or possibly billions of minute nerve- 
fibrils which, ramifying to every part of the cortex, connect it 
to the cerebellum and medulla oblongata, and from them ex- 
tend to the spinal cord, and thence communicate to all parts 
of the physical system. The fibrils or paths of conduction 
from one hemisphere cross those from the other on their way 
to the spinal cord, with the result that an injury to either 
hemisphere is manifested by its effect on the opposite side of 
the body. These fibrils are telegraph lines or "wires," over 
which the cortex of the cerebrum transmits orders to and re- 
ceives information from, substations (ganglions 1 ) conveni- 
ently located for the purpose. As in all metallic-circuit tele- 
graph lines, they are associated in pairs, of which one wire 
(the motor or efferent nerve) transmits orders from the brain, 

1 The ganglions, although so small as to approach the limit of 
visibility (and some of them to be actually invisible), are exceedingly 
elaborate and complex structures. Under the microscope, each ganglion 
is seen to consist of a membranous envelope or sheath containing an 
aggregation of nucleated cells and traversed by numerous nerve- 
fibres. The cells are in groups of varying size, and are separated 
from each other by the fibres, some of which traverse the ganglion 



THE HUMAN BRAIN 245 

and the other wire (the sensory or afferent nerve) carries 
information to the brain ; and are evidently insulated in some 
way, as their dispatches never go astray. But, although in 
pairs, they are so minute and arranged so close to each other, 
that to the eye the pair appear as a single thread. The "cur- 
rent" which passes over them, although swift, is exceedingly 
slow compared with the electric current in its passage over a 




Fig. 18: Ganglion, magnified. 



metallic wire ; whence it has been conjectured that it is either 
non-electric or is retarded in some way in passing over the 
nerves. Twelve pairs of these nerves extend from the cortex 

without being connected with the cells. The cut will give a general 
idea of the arrangement. 

Apparently, the ganglion cells are reinforcing batteries for the 
telegraph lines, some acting directly on the line, and others by induc- 
tion. It is possible that the ganglions are the effective means for 
producing the " reflex" or involuntary movements of the muscles. 



246 THE HUMAN BRAIN 

of the cerebrum to different parts of the head and face, and 
establish direct connection with the eyes, ears, nose and 
tongue. Thirty-one pairs issue from different parts of the 
spinal cord and run to the ganglions arranged in rows at op- 
posite sides of the vertebral column. From these ganglions, 
nerves, dividing and subdividing like the branches of a tree, 
bring every part of the skin and muscles, and even the ar- 
teries, veins and their capillaries, into effective communica- 
tion with the ganglions, and, through them, with the spinal 
cord and the cerebral cortex. 

Worthy of special mention (and of careful attention on 
the part of the reader) is the arrangement by which the 




nerves pass out of the vertebral column to connect with the 
exterior ganglions. For some unknown reason, the Divine 
Architect considered it necessary or advisable that the af- 
ferent nerve-fibrils should be connected to the cord at its rear 
side, and the efferent fibrils at its front side. Accordingly, 
an arrangement was devised which is represented diagram- 
matically in the following cut, in which a and e indicate, 
respectively, the sensory and motor fibrils of a nerve extend- 
ing from the spinal cord, s, to the left side of the body, and 
a', e', the corresponding fibrils of a nerve extending from 
the same part of the cord to the right side of the body. Once 
outside of the spine, these fibrils on each side come together 



THE HUMAN BEAIX 24? 

again at x, x, and proceed to their destinations. It is evident 
that they are separated for a short distance only for the pur- 
pose of enabling them to make separate exits at each side of 
the spinal cord. But note how, after being separated from 
each other within the cord in order to pass out of the spine 
at different exits, they immediately turn toward each other 
outside of the spine and unite again in a single thread ! 
Now this very peculiar arrangement might be regarded as 
accidental, or in other words as determined by chance, if it 
occurred only in a single instance; but there are thirty-one 
pairs of these fibrils, all similarly connected to the cord at 
different joints of the spine. Hence, the arrangement was 
clearly not determined by chance. On the other hand, no 
known law of evolution can account for it. There is, there- 
fore, no conceivable explanation of the facts except that of 
intelligent Creative design. Indeed, the construction bears 
on its face unmistakable evidence of design — as does also 
the elaborately planned telegraph system of the human body 
of which the spinal connections here described form only one 
feature. 

The question arises whether thought is originated by the 
brain itself, or by a spirit or soul acting upon and through 
the brain. This question transcends all others in importance 
to man, for upon the answer to it depends the solution of 
the enigma of human existence, nay, the solution of the 
enigma of the universe itself. 

There are potent reasons which render it inconceivable 
that the brain can originate thought. The brain is a ma- 
chine — as much so as a telegraph, or a telephone, or a type- 
writer. It is composed entirely of material elements. After 
death, it can be weighed, and analyzed, and* every atom of 
it thus proved to be mere physical matter. Thought is not 
physical matter, nor a function or result of physical matter, 



248 THE HUMAN BRAIN 

unless the evidence of all human experience and knowledge 
is to be disregarded. We can no more conceive of thought as 
the function or result of the action of a machine than we 
can conceive of ourselves as the function or result of the 
boots which we wear. How can matter form a conception of 
itself, or invent the differential and integral calculus, or 
bring forth the fanciful but imaginary creations of a Shake- 
speare or a Milton! Matter cannot even create matter. To 
say, then, that it can create thought or form the splendid 
fancies of a Milton or a Dante is to say that the stream can 
rise infinitely higher than its fountain. We are compelled 
therefore, to believe that there is behind or within the brain 
something which creates the thought, and afterwards uses 
the brain, as a typewriter uses her machine, or an operator 
his telegraph, to give it physical expression. 

A telegraph system does not create thought, but simply 
communicates it. Behind the telegraph there is always a 
mind dictating the thoughts of which the mechanical ap- 
paratus, like the pen, transmits the expression. When, there- 
fore, we examine critically the combined telegraphic and 
telephonic system of the brain, we recognize, by its obvious 
analogy to the man-made telegraphs and telephones, the 
fact that it is a mechanical apparatus, and that, in the pri- 
vate office behind it, there sits a mind which has conceived 
the thought to which the apparatus is giving expression. The 
mental power that we term consciousness furnishes strong 
support to this conclusion. Consciousness is a word mean- 
ing that the mind, being intelligent, knows what it is doing. 
We are conscious of our thoughts, of our reasonings, of our 
conclusions, of the information that we receive through the 
brain, of the orders that we give through the brain to our 
physical organs, and of our mental states. There is no act 
of the mind of which consciousness does not take notice. But 



THE HUMAN BBAIN 249 

it takes notice of nothing else, — not even of the movements 
of our own physical organs, except so far as they may have 
been telegraphically reported back to the mind through the 
brain telegraph system. For example, if I wish to raise my 
right foot, I order (that is, will) the movement to take place; 
through the transmitting-cell of the brain a current is sent 
to the appropriate muscles of the right leg, and they lift the 
foot from the ground. There is consciousness of the action 
of the will in directing the foot to be raised, but no con- 
sciousness of the telegraph-wire (the efferent or outgoing 
nerve) nor of the current passing over it. If, however, the 
nerve be severed, no current passes and the foot is not lifted : 
in other words, the line is out of working order, and the 
message does not reach the receiving-station. In reverse 
order, if, when my foot is on the ground, somebody grasps 
it and raises it from the ground, several telegraph-stations 
in the vicinity of the area of disturbance instantly telegraph 
the facts through another and different wire (the afferent or 
incoming nerve) to the brain, which immediately delivers the 
messages to my mind. But if the incoming wire has been 
severed, my mind does not get the information, and I have 
no knowledge that my foot has been raised, unless the eye 
has seen it rising, and has wired the news through the optic 
nerve and the brain to the conscious mind. 

In all this, the correspondence of the brain-telegraph 
to the telegraph which man instals for business purposes is 
complete except in one respect, namely, that, in man's com- 
mercial telegraphs, a dictating mind must be stationed at 
each end of the line, whereas, in the brain-telegraph, the dic- 
tating mind is stationed at one end of the line, and the 
other end transmits automatically, somewhat in the manner 
of a telephone. The Infinite constructor has contrived the 
brain-telegraph in that way in order that every event which 



250 THE HUMAN BRAIN 

produces any impression, however slight, on the surface of 
the living body may automatically and instantly give notice 
to the brain of what has been done. 

Now, the particular fact which I desire to impress clearly 
and strongly upon the mind of the reader is, that in causing 
his brain-telegraph to be set into operation, his consciousness 
gives him exactly the same information that it gives to him 
when he causes his ordinary commercial telegraph to be set 
into operation — no more, no less. And this fact every per- 
son can readily verify for himself. In each case he is con- 
scious of mentally framing the dispatch, of ordering (will- 
ing) it to be sent, and of nothing more. He is not con- 
scious that the transmitting instrument is operated, nor that 
a current passes over the line, nor of what takes place at the 
receiving station. If he will wait long enough, the return- 
wire (nerve) will bring him back a dispatch from the other 
end of the line informing him that his orders have been re- 
ceived and acted upon. On the commercial line, also, he may 
get an answer by wire giving him similar information. 

The parallelism is complete, simply because the two trans- 
actions are precisely the same. We are dealing with like 
facts, and not with allegories or fancies. 

Both reason and our own consciousness thus assure us 
that the brain-machine and the mind which controls and uses 
it are two entirely different things. The former, like any 
other machine, is composed of matter which can be seen, 
touched, weighed — which, when organized into a machine, 
will operate for a while until worn out. A machine, when 
worn out, is sent to the scrap-yard. If composed of any 
metallic parts, they may be remelted, and used for other 
purposes. If not composed of any metallic parts, the ele- 
ments attack it and slowly reduce it to a fertilizer. The par- 
ticular machine of flesh and blood which we call man's body 



THE HUMAN BRAIN 251 

has no metallic parts, and it ultimately shares the destiny 
of all other machines. But the mind which operates it till 
it is worn out, is invisible, intangible, imponderable. It is 
not a part of the machine, but is the personality who operates 
it — evidently a separate entity, like the operator of any other 
machine. When a machine is worn out, its remains may be 
weighed and analyzed by chemical processes, and every atom 
of it thus accounted for; but that does not account for the 
person who operated and used it. 

Science looks to the laws of Evolution to explain, if they 
can, the origin of the machine, and has formulated, in Dar- 
win's theory, all that is known of those laws. We examine 
them, and find that they cannot account for the origin, or 
explain the construction, of any one of the billions of cells of 
which the mechanism is composed. Science long ago gave 
up all hope of ever being able to explain the nature, origin, 
or genesis, of the mind. That subject remains an inscrutable 
mystery. 

But there are many things known about the machine — 
the telegraph system — through which the mind acts to give 
expression to its thoughts. Some of these things have been 
already set forth ; others remain to be considered, to ascertain 
what further light they will give, if any, upon the relation of 
the machine to the mind which operates it. 

Everybody knows that it is not necessary to give any 
thought to the operation of certain most important parts of 
our physical system. Nature kindly provided that the nutri- 
tive and circulating apparatus, whose constant action is nec- 
essary to the maintenance of life, shall be kept in operation 
by the body automatically. Otherwise, the care which they 
would require would prevent us from attending to anything 
else, and the Creator would be obliged to resort to some other 
scheme of animal existence, in which infancy and sleep 



252 THE HUMAN BRAIN 

should have no place. Nature has, therefore, relieved the 
brain from the necessity of attending to the working of the 
automatic apparatus; and, as usual with her, the means for 
accomplishing this result are very simple and effective, con- 
sisting of nothing more than the omission, from the auto- 
matic organs, of the motor nerves necessary to enable the 
brain to control them at will. Meanwhile, she has not neg- 
lected to provide them with a full equipment of sensory 
nerves, by which they can inform the brain when anything 
worthy of its attention occurs to them. For example, there 
is no motor nerve by which we can control at will the action 
of the heart or the process of digestion; but when neuralgia 
or inflammation attacks the heart, the stomach, or the bowels, 
their sensory nerves, always on guard, warn us that those 
organs are suffering and that the doctor should be summoned 
without delay. The absence of all motor-connections from 
the brain to the vital organs (the heart, lungs, stomach, 
bowels, liver and kidneys), when considered in connection 
with the careful retention of the sensory nerve-connections 
between the same organs and the brain, certainly looks very 
much as if it were the work of design. 

Unlike the vital organs, which have no motor nerves con- 
nected with the brain and are therefore not under its control, 
the non-vital organs (the limbs and their members, the lower 
jaw, the tongue, the eyes, the face, the vocal organs, the organs 
of deglutition, the sphincters, and the complicated combi- 
nation of ribs, diaphragm and muscles that operates the 
breathing-apparatus, are provided with motor-nerves leading 
to the brain, and are therefore under its immediate control. 
Several of these non-vital organs are arranged in pairs; and 
here comes another evidence of design — for the paired eyes, 
which must necessarily move always in absolute harmony in 
order to ensure accuracy of vision, are controlled by separate 



THE HUMAN BEAIN 253 

muscles which are cross-connected by nerves, thus compelling 
both eyes to move with perfect simultaneity and harmony; 
whereas, on the contrary, the paired e}^elids, arms, legs, hands, 
feet, fingers, and toes, which are required to move sometimes 
independently of each other, are not so cross-connected and 
are thus free to be moved at will either separately or together. 
It is easy to see how an intelligent Creator should understand 
the necessity of crossing the nerves of the eye-muscles and 
thus perfecting His work; but I confess that it is impossible 
for me to see how this ingenious and altogether admirable in- 
vention—the crossed nerves — could have created itself, or 
could have been created by any conceivable process of evolu- 
tion. I never knew the need of an invention to create the 
invention; although I have many times known it to suggest 
to the intelligence of man the desirability of trying to invent 
something to meet the want. But Evolution has no intelli- 
gence, and never invented anything. She could never have 
conceived that for normal vision the eyes must move in per- 
fect harmony, nor that, by connecting the six muscles of each 
eye by cross-nerves with the corresponding six muscles of the 
other eye, that result would be attained and the perfect har- 
mony of the eyes ensured. 

Did you ever consider how perfect that harmony is, and 
how complicated the arrangements of the mechanism neces- 
sary to secure it? If not, it is well worth while to give it a 
little study. First, observe that, without moving the body or 
head, you can with the eyes sweep the entire field of vision, 
in a horizontal plane, in a vertical plane above and below 
the horizontal, and in any one of the infinite number of in- 
clined planes ; and you can make any one of these movements 
almost instantly, and so easily that you have only to will it 
and it is done as if by magic. While the eyes are thus 
sweeping the field of vision, they adjust themselves automat- 



254 THE HUMAN BEAIN 

ically to the variations of focal distance. And, all the while, 
they move in exact simultaneity, and without the slightest 
disturbance of vision. The order to make the movement is 
issued through the brain, and communicated by the motor- 
nerves connecting it with the eye-muscles. Next, consider 
what is necessary to secure the wonderful harmony of move- 
ment. Twelve muscles are required — six to each eye — to roll 
the eyes in their sockets. The motor-nerves from the brain 
will energize the muscles at your will ; but that alone will not 
suffice. Motor-nerves from the brain will energize the mus- 
cles of the feet at your volition, but you will find that it re- 
quires long practice to be able to jump both feet at once to 
precisely the same distance. Such an arrangement, there- 
fore, would not do for the eyes — they must be connected by 
some means which will ensure the exact coincidence of their 
movements. As the muscles of the eye are too far back in the 
socket to be seen from any point in front of the eye, their 
arrangement and that of their nerves cannot be clearly illus- 
■fcrated in a cut ; but the following diagram will enable the ar- 
rangement of their crossed nerves to be understood. 

It will at once be evident that this diagram indicates a 
complex and carefully-planned mechanical invention. For 
turning the eyeball towards the right or left, the means 
adopted are similar to the braces or sheets by which the 
main yard of a ship is turned to the right and left. If, now, 
her main yard were so connected to her fore yard that both 
would always swing exactly coincidently, the movement of 
the two yards would illustrate the movement of the two eyes 
to the right or left. But for turning the eyes upward and 
downward, the arrangement must be duplicated in a vertical 
plane; and again duplicated for turning them obliquely. 
Neither the two yards nor the two eyes could be directly 
connected so as to establish these movements without cramp- 



THE HUMAN BRAIN 



255 



ing, and so, in the case of the two eyes, a different construc- 
tion had to be resorted to — and the desired result was at- 
tained by providing muscles to directly move the eyes, and 
by using electric circuits, or their equivalents, to energize 
the muscles, and cross-connecting the circuits. Now if that 
is not invention then pray what is invention! 




Fig. 20. Diagram. 

Comparatively recent anatomical discoveries have demon- 
strated a number of important facts concerning the relation 
of the brain-structure to the mind and to the voluntary 
activities of the body: 1. — One of these facts is, that par- 
ticular tracts of the cerebral cortex (in both hemispheres), 
through which muscular control is exercised by the will, have 
been identified and located; so it is now possible to make a 
map showing the location of many of these tracts and approx- 
imately defining their boundaries. 

As these motor-regions are in duplicates (one for each 



256 



THE HUMAN BRAIN 




I 



'^VlVlHCt* 



THE HUMAN BEAIN 257 

hemisphere) and both are normally active; and, as in 
traversing the brain-stem the nerves of each hemisphere cross 
to the opposite side, it results that if the right hemisphere 
be seriously injured in its motor region the limbs on the 
left side will be paralyzed,- and if the left hemisphere be in- 
jured the limbs on the right side will be paralyzed. If the 
injury is confined to a single tract of the motor-region, the 
paralysis is confined to the limb or member controlled by 
that tract. So that now, when a surgeon is called to a case 
of right or left paralysis, he has only to ascertain what limbs 
or members are affected, in order to determine the locality 
where the injury was suffered in the opposite hemisphere. 

2. — The second fact recently discovered is, that the pure- 
ly-intellectual or mental faculties occupy other definite tracts 
of the brain-cortex, but in only one of the two hemispheres; 
and that thus we do all our thinking in only one half of the 
brain. This is at once illustrated and proved by a very re- 
markable medical case reported in the American Journal of 
Medical Sciences for March, 1899. In that case, the patient, 
a carpenter, found on awaking one morning that his left side 
was numb and paralyzed. He remained in that condition 
ten years until he died at the age of fifty-seven. During a 
considerable part of those ten years, he was under the care of 
a noted physician, Dr. Pearce Bailey, who reported the case 
in the American Journal. Dr. Bailey reports that during 
all the ten years the patient remained paralyzed, but his 
speech was perfectly normal, his reading good, his memory 
unaffected. He gave no sign of mental weakness, but was 
always intelligent, patient, cheerful and particularly good 
in attention. He read the newspapers constantly, and liked 
to talk politics. He bore his inability bravely, and was 
neither depressed, emotional, irritable nor apathetic. At the 
post mortem examination it was found that the left hemi- 



258 THE HUMAN BRAIN 

sphere was normal in size and in the configuration of its 
convolutions; while the whole tissue of the right hemisphere 
was disorganized and without any remains of gray matter. 
The posterior half of this hemisphere was everywhere 
atrophied, and greatly reduced in size; so that the brain, as 
represented in the cut printed with Dr. Pearce's report, re- 
sembled in shape a shelled walnut which on one side of the 
median line had not half -developed. The frontal part of 
this hemisphere, comprising nearly the whole of it, was occu- 
pied by a large fibrous tumor or cyst, of a dirty white color, 
more resistant to the knife than is the brain, and showing 
no gray matter. Under the microscope, the contents of this 
region appeared as a shapeless mass, destitute of ganglions 
or cells ; while the structure of the left hemisphere was nor- 
mal. The left side of the spinal cord was greatly atrophied 
and reduced in volume. Thus : the right hemisphere had 
been practically destroyed, without affecting the mind. 

The relative arrangement of the cortex-tracts in the 
hemisphere through which our intellectual activities are man- 
ifested, is shown in the following two cuts. 

The intellectual faculties require no motor-nerves, for 
they have nothing to do with the muscular activities. And 
they have use only for such sensory nerves as will bring them 
information. The mind is accordingly furnished with local 
intelligence-offices, or libraries for the receipt and storage of 
all such information. One of these libraries is devoted to 
the memory of words seen ; another to the memory of objects 
seen; one to the memory of words heard, and another to the 
memory of objects heard; one to the memory of music, one 
to the memory of impressions made by tasting; and one to 
the memory of impressions made by touch. These offices or 
libraries have been definitely located, as shown by the map. 
(Fig. 21.) Judging from what has been accomplished by 



THE HUMAN BRAIN 



259 



the investigations that have been going on all over the world 
since April, 1861, when Dr. Paul Broca first called attention 
to the subject by reporting to the Anthropological Society of 




Fig. 22. 




Paris his famous discovery of the seat of the speaking-faculty 
in the third frontal convolution (since called Broca's convolu- 
tion), we are justified in expecting that before many years 



260 THE HUMAN BRAIN 

shall have passed away the locations of other mental-libraries 
will be discovered and mapped — perhaps the places where are 
stored the memories of our own thoughts, feelings or con- 
clusions, or the memories of distance, height, weight, color. 

All this information as to the division of the brain- 
cortex into "seats" (for muscular control), and into mental 
"libraries," has been acquired, not by conjecture or arbitrary 
assumption, as the phrenologists undertook to do, but by 
careful scientific investigation and research. A few examples 
will be illustrative. Dr. Broca first discovered the motor seat 
of speaking by making post-mortem examinations of persons 
who had suffered the loss of that power by apoplexy or other 
injury to the brain. He found invariably that the injury 
had been to the third frontal convolution: and subsequent 
observation has fully confirmed the fact. The case reported 
by Dr. Pearce Bailey has been already described hereinabove. 
In a case reported in the British Medical Journal for 1888, 
the patient's skull had been broken, driving a fragment of 
the inner table in against the spot where is located the 
"library" for storing the memories of things seen, thus de- 
priving him of the power to recognize persons or objects by 
sight alone. He could see perfectly, but could not recognize 
his wife and children. He could not recognize his own 
fingers, nor count them except by the aid of the sense of 
touch. A fellow-workman remained unknown until he spoke, 
when the voice was recognized. A surgical operation relieved 
the cortex from the pressure, and the patient afterwards 
fully recovered and went back to work. Many other similar 
cases have been reported. In still other cases, where the 
cortex has been injured in that locality where are stored 
the memories of sounds, the ear has continued to hear as well 
as ever, but the mind could no longer distinguish one sound 



THE HUMAN BEAIN 261 

from another — all sounds had become mere noises. Undoubt- 
edly, that quite common infirmity which is called color-blind- 
ness is due to a similar cause — for the person affected can see 
as well as other people, but cannot distinguish between two 
or more different colors; probably that spot in the cortex 
where color-memories are stored had been imperfectly de- 
veloped in his case. 

3. — Another remarkable fact is, that a brain-library, like 
any other library, may suffer the loss or misplacement of 
one or more of its records, while the rest of its contents re- 
main in place, undisturbed. Thus, in some cases, persons 
have suddenly lost the ability to read written or printed 
letters, while retaining the power to read and understand 
written or printed figures — place before them, for example, 
a sheet of paper on which were the words "fifteen hundred 
thousand/' they would have no conception of what those 
marks meant; but give them a sheet containing the expres- 
sion 1,500,000, there would be no difficulty in reading and 
understanding the figures. In one case, an educated English 
gentleman, familiar with the English, French, Latin and 
Greek languages, suddenly found himself unable to read. 
Shortly afterwards, he discovered that what he had lost was 
not the power to read, but the power to read English words. 
Greek, he could read as well as ever; Latin and French, 
with more or less difficulty ; and music perfectly. In another 
case, a Frenchman, who had been employed in Scotland as 
a teacher of the French language, and had returned to his 
native country, lost, by an apoplexy, the power to understand 
French by hearing it spoken, and thenceforth had to be ad- 
dressed in English. What these cases mean is, that the 
cortex-libraries in which had been stored, in the respective 
instances, the memory of words as distinguished from 
figures, of English, Latin and French words as distinguished 



262 THE HUMAN BRAIN 

from Greek words, or of French as distinguished from Eng- 
lish, had lost a part of their contents. It also indicates un- 
mistakably that in these brain-libraries, as in all other prop- 
erly-managed libraries, the contents are arranged with refer- 
ence to subject-matter — words being arranged in one alcove 
and figures in another; and English, French, Latin and 
Greek arranged on separate shelves. To what extremes of 
minuteness this process of subdivision has been carried is 
not yet known; but science is gradually learning more and 
more about it. 

4. — Another recently-discovered fact, of most serious im- 
portance, is the fact that as above stated, the brain "libraries" 
are located in only one hemisphere; not, indeed, invariably 
in the right, or invariably in the left, hemisphere ; but always 
in one alone: further, that both hemispheres are, prior to 
birth, fitted up alike for the accommodation of these 
libraries ; and, finally, that if the quarters first used for them 
be injured during youth, they can be moved into the hitherto 
unused quarters in the other hemisphere, although this can- 
not be accomplished after middle life. 1 

These are, indeed, strange discoveries ! They seem to 
make it entirely clear that the Intelligence which uses the 
libraries is not a product of the brain, but merely, so to 
speak, the tenant of certain apartments in one hemisphere, 
with the privilege, for a reasonable time, of migrating into 
precisely-similar apartments in the other hemisphere in case 
its original quarters prove to be untenantable. They dem- 
onstrate that the mind is not due to the action of the brain 

1 It has been conjectured that, from want of use, the seat in the 
unoccupied hemisphere becomes atrophied in the course of time, just 
as a muscle does from non-use. But, at all events, for several years 
after birth, the mental faculties can migrate from one hemisphere to 
the other, if the one used becomes injured so as to be no longer fit to 
perform its functions. 



THE HUMAN BRAIN 263 

&s a whole, or of either of its hemispheres, or of its cells — 
not due to the action of the brain as a whole, for, in the 
carpenters case, one half of the brain was destroyed with- 
out impairing the mind; not due to any power or capacity 
peculiar to one hemisphere alone, for, in many cases, after 
conducting its operations for several years in one of the 
hemispheres, and that hemisphere having become injured, 
the mind has migrated to the other hemisphere and gone on 
with its work; not due to the organized action of the cells, 
for, in the carpenter's case, one-half of the cells were de- 
stroyed without afTecting the mind; not due to any one cell 
alone, for no cell can change _f rom one hemisphere to the 
other. Look at the facts as we will, we are forced to the 
conclusion that the mind is not the product, function, or 
result, of any material thing or things. It is itself imma- 
terial — we cannot conceive how it could be produced from 
matter; and an examination of the brain proves that it was 
not so produced. There is no other alternative but that the 
mind is an independent immaterial or spiritual entity or per- 
sonality, which uses the brain as a mere instrument or ma- 
chine by means of which to accomplish its purposes. And 
we cannot but agree that the mechanical instrument used by 
it is the most marvellous embodiment of Creative ingenuity 
and skill that is known to man. 

Undoubtedly, the cells of which the cortex is composed 
are not all constructed alike internally; but the size of their 
molecules is so minute, and the size of their component 
atoms so nearly infinitesimal, that the microscope can give 
us no information as to their internal construction. As we 
have already seen, 1 spectrum analysis, with its colored bands 
of light, shows that the atoms of matter are most complex 
structures ; but that is substantially all that it can reveal that 

1 See ante, p. 135. 



264 THE HUMAN BRAIN 

would be of the slightest use in this discussion. Similari- 
ties or dissimilarities in the internal structure of the cortex- 
cells may, however, be safely inferred from the similarity 
or dissimilarity of their functions or results. Judging in 
that way, we may reasonably infer that the motor-cells of 
the cortex are in all essential respects constructed alike; for 
the swelling or contraction of muscle is their only function. 
But the cells of the intellectual area cannot be alike in con- 
struction; for no such area can exchange functions with any 
other area. The cells in which are stored the memories of 
words heard, for example, cannot be used for storing the 
memories of words read. Order is Heaven's "first law;" 
and nowhere is it more invariable than in the construction 
of the brain. It is easy to conceive of a physical basis for 
this difference between cells adapted to receive impressions 
from things heard and other cells adapted to receive im- 
pressions from things seen ; for the sound-waves and the light- 
waves, from which these impressions respectively originate, 
are very different in their mechanical action. 

In a work such as this, the subject of the brain and its 
relation to the mind can only be treated in outline, leaving 
the reader to fill in the details by reference to medical and 
scientific authorities. Enough has been said, however, to 
render it clear that the brain furnishes strong evidence of 
Creative design, and at the same time proves that mind is 
not created by matter, but is an immaterial something that 
thinks for itself and uses the brain and other physical organs 
as its instruments. 



CHAPTEE XX. 
God. 

The three most impressive facts in the material universe 
are, the reign of universal law, the existence of universal 
order, and the indications everywhere in nature of the exer- 
cise of contrivance and design. These facts, evident even 
to the dullest apprehension, are manifestly not due to chance 
or accidental coincidence, but to some broad and far-reach- 
ing cause which acts under the direction of intelligence. All 
three of them indicate clearly the action of mind, and are 
not explainable on any other theory. Contrivance and design 
prove not only the action of mind, but of personality and 
will. When manifested clearly and unmistakably in the 
works of nature, as they are in a thousand different ways, 
there is only one theory that can account for them — the the- 
ory of a Supreme Being who created and governs the 
universe. 

The atheist finds himself obliged to admit the existence 
of law and order throughout the material universe: but he 
ascribes the uniformity and regularity of nature's processes 
to some mysterious force which he assumes to be inherent in 
matter itself, thus overlooking the unanswerable evidence of 
intelligent Creative contrivance and design. But until that 
evidence shall be rebutted or explained away (which cannot 
be done), it will be useless for men to waste time in dis- 
cussing the imaginary mysterious "force of nature." There 
is no evidence that any such "force" exists; whereas, the evi- 
dence of Creative contrivance and design is conclusive, and 

265 



266 GOD 

supersedes all necessity for imagining any further or other 
explanation of the known facts. 

Aside from the atheist's visionary conjecture of a mys- 
terious life-force inherent in matter itself, there is nothing 
to be considered that has not already been disposed of by the 
facts and arguments hereinbefore set forth. We do. indeed, 
occasionally hear evolution mentioned as the explanation of 
all things in nature; but only by persons who are accus- 
tomed to use words without any clearly-defined idea of their 
meaning. When they speak of evolution as accounting for 
everything in nature, it is clear that they do not mean the 
evolution referred to by Darwin, for his theory did not under- 
take to explain anything but the progressive development of 
plants and animals from their living germs. There is no 
theory of evolution except that of Darwin. 

We have come, then, to the end of our discussion, so far 
as it concerns the great question whether God exists and 
governs the universe. *The proof of His existence and gov- 
ernment is so clear and convincing' that it must be pro- 
nounced absolutely conclusive. There is no room for any 
other verdict ; for in all nature there is found not the slight- 
est evidence to the contrary. 

This conclusion accepted, as it must be by all reasoning 
minds, Evolution disappears as a religious question. It will 
always remain interesting, and scientifically valuable as a 
theory on which to explain the processes of animal and plant 
development from the living germ. For it is undoubtedly 
based upon fundamental truth — the truth that God is not 
clothed in a material body, and therefore works His will by 
establishing general laws for the control and government of 
material things. To ascertain and formulate those laws is 
the high prerogative of science. As an aid in that work, 
Darwin, after a lifetime devoted to the study of nature, put 



god 267 

forth his celebrated Theory. It does not fully and satisfac- 
torily explain all the phenomena of animal and plant devel- 
opment, but does satisfactorily explain many of them. Evi- 
dently, God has implanted in the very nature of matter and 
force some deeper and more far-reaching law than any yet 
discovered. 

Science has not only enabled us to prove the existence 
and government of God, but it has done much more than 
that — it has furnished us with information that practically 
amounts to a new revelation of God Himself. That revela- 
tion tells us of His eternity; for He existed before time 
began: of His omnipotence; for He controls the universe: 
of His omnipresence; for He is acting at the same time 
everywhere throughout the universe : of His omniscience ; for 
that follows from His omnipresence: and of His incorporeal 
unity; for it is clear that the works of nature were all pro- 
duced by one and the same Maker, who is not embodied in 
material form, but who 

"Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent.'' 

The church tells us that God is immanent — that is, that 
He dwells personally in everything. Science goes far to con- 
firm this dogma, by taking us down to the very basement 
story of the material universe, the most secret laboratory of 
nature, and revealing dimly to our astonished eyes the won- 
derful work going on inside of the atoms themselves. With 
the aid of the spectroscope and the cathode ray, we can make 
out that each atom is filled with a most elaborate mechanism, 
of inconceivable perfection — scores or hundreds of wheels 
revolving with almost the speed of light, and all working 
with the utmost harmony. The details of construction we 



268 GOD 

cannot see; but we observe that the energy of the internal 
action sets the whole atom into violent oscillations, which 
appear to cooperate with those of the neighboring atoms for 
the production of some unknown result. The world was not 
aware of the existence of this strange mechanism till within 
a few years past ; for science had not yet been able to observe 
the operation of a machine that is contained within a space 
of less than a billionth of an inch — a space so small that if 
magnified a thousand times it would still be invisible through 
microscopes of the greatest power. 

Thus, "the immanence of God/' which, in the creed, is a 
cold and lifeless form of words, incomprehensible even to 
the imagination, becomes an intensely vital and present real- 
ity when we discover His handiwork in the internal con- 
struction of the infinitesimal atom, and realize that it, too, 
exhibits mechanism and contrivance. "Mechanism, mechan- 
ism, mechanism/' is the universal revelation of science — 
mechanism in the largest and in the least of nature's works 
— in those that are living, and in those that are as lifeless as 
the ' rocks. 

The eternal immanence of God is, therefore, an inevitable 
conclusion of science, and not a mere theological dogma. At 
this point, science and theology come together in harmony: 
for science proves contrivance or design in the works of na- 
ture; design in the works of nature proves the existence and 
government of God; the universality of design throughout 
the universe — even in the structure of its ultimate atoms — 
proves the Divine immanence; and the Divine immanence 
explains Evolution and, through it, perfectly reconciles re- 
ligion and science. 

It is sometimes objected that man's conception of God 
as having Personality is anthropomorphite and therefore 
fallacious ; that such a God is a mere phantom of man's imag- 



GOD 269 

ination; that the God whose mysterious action is manifested 
in nature is unconditioned by any characteristic which man's 
mind can conceive, and hence must be absolutely unknowable. 
This objection, while not denying the existence of God, prac- 
tically would banish Him from human affairs and even from 
human thought. But this objection is not supported by 
science. The Creator revealed by Himself in nature is in- 
corporeal — therefore in the physical sense unlike man; but 
He possesses the same intellectual attributes as man, only 
in an infinitely greater degree. It would be presumptuous 
even to discuss His attributes, had He not authorized us to 
do so by revealing Himself in His own works — the only kind 
of revelation of Him that we could rely upon without pos- 
sibility of error. As thus revealed, He is a Being who thinks ; 
reasons; plans; chooses one alternative because it is the best 
for one situation, and the other because it is the best for 
the other situation; avoids insuperable difficulties by getting 
around them; wills; executes; contrives; knows all things; 
remembers all things; appreciates the beautiful, the grand, 
the harmony of color, the symmetry of proportions; exhibits 
care and affection for his creatures. Do you not recognize 
these all as human characteristics, differing from the super- 
human only in degree? They are not the illusions of fancy, 
but are facts incidentally proved by the examples cited in 
the foregoing pages as illustrative of Creative design and 
now found to go much further than that and to make known 
the personal attributes of the Deity himself. Only in two 
respects do they fall short, namely, in that they do not reveal 
His moral nature, nor His Prescience. It is impossible that 
they should reveal His moral nature; for that can be re- 
vealed only in two ways, to wit: firstly, by the creation of 
moral agencies and the government of them by moral laws, 
and, secondly, by direct revelation of His moral purposes — 



270 GOD 

neither of which subjects has come within the purview of 
our discussion, up to this point. Nor have we had occa- 
sion to touch upon, the subject of Prescience. 

But when we come to consider Man and the question of 
his immortality, it is possible that the revelation of God 
may be completed. One thing, at least is certain, to wit, 
that, in an intellectual sense, Man was made in the image 
of God. God is, therefore, not unknowable to Man, although 
He may be to all His other creatures, and certainly is to all 
others of whom we have any knowledge. 



PART II 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Man — General Reflections. The Teaching of Science 

Is, That, God Being Eternal, Man Must 

Be Immortal. 

We have seen not only that the works of nature prove the 
existence and government of God, but also that they clearly 
reveal many of His attributes, and, especially that they re- 
veal, apparently, a Divine purpose in the construction of the 
material universe — a purpose which is of supreme interest 
to man, because it indicates that his welfare is, for some un- 
known reason, a paramount object of the Creator's solicitude. 
He has placed man at the head of His creatures, made him 
the master and them the servants, and given him the power 
to maintain his position. All others, He has locked up in 
physical conditions that forever preclude the possibility of 
rising above their present level. To man, He has opened the 
door for endless progress, and has bestowed upon him intel- 
lectual powers that are apparently unlimited. 

What does all this avail man if he is to become extinct 
at the end of a few years ? Why has God created and fitted 
up a world for his exclusive control, and made him the most 
gifted of all his creatures, if there be nothing beyond this 
life? The brutes know all that it is necessary for them to 
know for the purpose of their existence ; and, if there is no 
hereafter, they are far happier than he, for they have no 
care nor anxiety about the future, no ambition to threaten 

271 



272 MAN — GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

disappointment, no greed for wealth to render their nights 
sleepless and their days miserable, no God, no conscience, no 
remorse. Nature even provides their clothing, which never 
wears out. Verily, if this life be all there is for man, then 
the plan of nature is infinitely unreasonable, unjust and 
wrong. The few years alloted to him in this life are too 
short for the full development of his higher faculties. See 
how slow has been the progress of the race in knowledge, 
wisdom and morals! After more than eighteen hundred 
years of instruction in the principles of the Golden Kule, 
common honesty and sexual purit}^, the leaders of the Church 
were still debating with bitterness and asperity the question 
whether or not the moral law approves of human slavery, 
"the sum of all villainies !" And I doubt not that, for ten 
thousand years yet to come, the rule in practise between the 
laborer and his employer, the tradesman and his customer, 
the agent and his principal, will continue to be something 
very different from the Golden Eule. 

If, then, man, the individual, is to get the full benefit of 
his unlimited capacity for intellectual and moral develop- 
ment it must be in a future life, and not in this. So, too, if 
virtue is to receive its reward and vice its punishment, it 
must be there, not here. When limited to this life, virtue is 
not always rewarded, vice is seldom punished, and absolute 
justice is an idle dream. 

Thus the scheme of the universe itself indicates the ne- 
cessity for man's future life. The whole plan would be awry 
without it. Things would be out of all proportion to each 
other. If this life be all there is of man, a universe would 
have been created for nothing — the mountain would have 
been in labor only to bring forth "a ridiculous mouse/' 

All this is certainly irreconcilable with nature's revela- 
tion of her own methods. She does not exhibit herself to us 



MAN— GENEKAL EEFLECTIONS 273 

as wasting her energies, nor as employing means that are in 
disproportion to the ends to be accomplished by them. So 
universally is this recognized as true that the common speech 
bears witness of it in many a familiar expression, such as, 
for example, that "nature does nothing in vain." Darwin's 
theory of development by progressive gradual modification 
has endeavored to account for it as far as it relates to animal 
and plant life ; but the observed facts go far beyond the nar- 
row limits of his theory, taking in cosmical processes as well 
as the phenomena of life. Yet, if it be true that nature does 
nothing in vain, it cannot at the same time be true that she 
has created and fitted up a magnificent and beautiful world 
for the benefit of brutes whose faculties are incapable even 
of seeing its beauties, nor that she has equipped man with 
his godlike capacity for unlimited mental and moral advance- 
ment, and cut him off with a few years of existence in which 
he has practically no opportunity to exercise his powers. 
Placed in a world where disappointment is the rule and suc- 
cess the exception, and given insufficient time in which to 
learn how to avoid the making of grave mistakes, few old 
men come to the end of life without feeling that it has been 
unsatisfactory, and that they ought to have the opportunity 
to come back and try it over again, or at least they ought to 
be accorded another term of existence, in another world, 
where they may be able 'to profit by their hard-earned ex- 
perience in this life. Such thoughts .cannot be called unrea- 
sonable ; for they are based upon that intuitive- sentiment of 
justice which is the common heritage of all human beings. 

At this point, science comes to our relief, assuring us not 
only that there is nothing improbable in the hoped-for state 
of existence beyond the grave, but that there are most cogent 
reasons for believing the hope well-founded. She calls our 
attention to the fact that, at what we call death, the material 



274 SCIENCE COMES TO MAN'S EELIEF. 

body ceases to be used, and disintegrates into its original 
elements, but that the mind is still to be accounted for. She 
makes known to us, through the structure and operation of 
the brain itself, that the mind is not the product of the brain 
or of any other form of matter, but there is something im- 
material in its nature and yet as certainly real and existent 
as is the body. And, lastly, she bids us remember always that 
God is immaterial and eternally existent ; and that He mani- 
fests (only in a higher degree) every super-physical power 
that distinguishes mind from matter — manifests it by the 
very acts by which our minds manifest it, namely, by think- 
ing, knowing, willing, contriving, adapting means to ends, 
reasoning, remembering, and creating — acts of which matter 
is absolutely incapable. 

The two facts thus verified by scientific research, viz., 
that our minds have nothing material either in their origin 
or their essence, and, secondly, that the eternal Being who 
created nature and her works manifests powers and faculties 
strikingly analogous to those manifested by our own minds, 
give us strong assurance that the substance of spirit, mind, 
or soul, whether existing in God or man, is intrinsically and 
necessarily immortal. Knowing the eternity of God, it is 
impossible, in view of these facts, to believe the existence of 
man less than eternal. When, therefore, the Church argues 
that the interests of the soul are of infinitely more importance 
than the interests of the body, it speaks in strict accordance 
with the teachings of science. 

The materialist, blind to everything whose origin he can- 
not trace beyond the dirt, sees the body come from dust, and 
therefore rashly concludes that the mind comes from no 
higher source. But, if we may be allowed to use the ex- 
pression in all reverence, matter did not produce the stuff 
that God is made of, nor did it produce the similar stuff 



SCIENCE COMES TO MAN'S BELIEF. 275 

that the soul of man is made of. That soul is a spark from 
the celestial fire which never goes out; that spark will never 
be extinguished. Thus we find ourselves driven to the -same 
conclusion reached by Darwin, that, however science may ac- 
count for the body, it must admit that "life, with its several 
powers/' was originally "breathed into" it by the Creator. 

This conclusion throws a new light upon the universe, 
making clear a thousand things that would otherwise remain 
unfathomable mysteries: revealing a conceivable motive for 
Creation, commensurable with the vastness of its design; 
explaining why this beautiful world was fitted up with so 
much care and foresight for man's sole benefit ; and impress- 
ing upon us the feeling that this life, short and unsatisfac- 
tory as it is, and restrained by irksome physical conditions, 
is, somehow, disciplinary, and preparatory for a future state 
of existence, in which physical impediments shall no longer 
hamper us, and the soul shall be free to go forth upon its 
immeasurable career onward and upward. 

If this is the meaning of life, the question whether life 
is worth living need trouble us no longer. Its burdens and 
disappointments, and the inequalities of conditions here 
below, may well be patiently endured, if we only make good 
use of its opportunities for self-discipline — opportunities 
which, if rightly used, will enable us to begin our new exist- 
ence on a higher plane, but if lost can never be recovered. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

Same Subject Continued. Certain Faculties of the 

Mind not Adapted to This Life, But Only to 

the Future Life. Music and Speech 

Are Adapted to Both Worlds. 

If the mind should be found to possess powers or facul- 
ties that are unnecessary for the purposes of man's existence 
here on Earth, but conceivably useful, or even necessary, for 
his existence in the spirit world, the discovery of such powers 
or faculties in it here would furnish strong corroborative 
evidence of its survival after the death of the body. It would 
prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the body is only a tem- 
porary structure adapted for the purposes of this life, and 
not at all adapted to give full play to the powers of the real 
personality within it. 

Now, it appears to be a well-established scientific fact that 
the mind has such extraordinary powers or faculties, and that 
telepathy is one of them. Sir Oliver Lodge, who investi- 
gated the phenomena of telepathy carefully, and whose posi- 
tion in the front rank of English scientists entitles his state- 
ments to great weight, says: 

"What we can assert is this, that the facts of 'telepathy/ 
and in a less degree of what is called 'clairvoyance/ must be 
regarded as practically established, in the minds of those 
who have studied them. There may be, indeed there is, still 
much doubt about the explanation to be attached to those 
facts; there is uncertainty as to their real meaning, and as 
to whether the idea half-suggested by the word 'telepathy/ 

276 



MAN— TELEPATHY. 277 

is completely correct ; but the facts themselves are too numer- 
ous and well-authenticated to be doubted, — even if we except 
from our survey the directly experimental cases designed to 
test and bring to book this strange human faculty/' 1 

What we mean by the word '"telepathy" is : the ability of 
our mind to communicate directly with another mind, without 
the intervention of physical organs or other material means 
of conveying information or impressions. There are very 
few intelligent persons of adult age who have not, at one 
time or another, witnessed proofs of the existence of "this 
strange human faculty." The information transmitted and 
received by it varies greatly in clearness and deflniteness, 
sometimes being as precise, positive and unmistakable as if 
it were expressed in words, at other times a mere vague feel- 
ing or impression. Its transmission does not appear to de- 
pend either upon the volition of the person sending or the 
one receiving the intelligence, but one mind simply seems 
to know, at any distance, how another mind is affected at 
that particular moment by anything of interest to both. It 
is often manifested in dreams — for example, as related by 
Lord Roberts in Chapter III of his "Forty-one Years in 
India." Lord Roberts was serving under his father, Gen. 
Abraham Roberts, at Peshawar, in India. His father, nearly 
seventy years of age, was unwell and, under the advice of his 
physicians, was about to return to England for his health. 
Lord Roberts relates the incident as follows: 

"Shortly before his departure, an incident occurred which 
I will relate for the benefit of psychological students: they 
may, perhaps, be able to explain it. I never could. M}^ 
father had some time before issued invitations for a dance, 
which was to take place in two days' time, on Monday the 
17th of October, 1853. On the Saturday morning he ap- 

1 Science and Immortality, p. 73. 



278 MAN— TELEPATHY. 

peared disturbed and unhappy, and during breakfast he was 
silent and despondent — very different from his usual bright 
and cheery self. On my questioning him as to the cause, he 
told me he had had an unpleasant dream — one which he had 
dreamt several times before and which had always been fol- 
lowed by the death of a near relation. As the day advanced, 
in spite of my efforts to cheer him, he became more and more 
depressed, and even said he should like to put off the dance. 
I dissuaded him from taking this step for the time being; 
but that night he had the same dream again and the next 
morning he insisted on the dance being postponed. It seemed 
to me rather absurd to have to disappoint our friends be- 
cause of a dream. There was, however, nothing for it but to 
carry out my father's wishes, and intimation was accordingly 
sent to the invited guests. The following morning the post- 
brought news of the sudden death of the half-sister at La- 
hore with whom I had stayed on my way to Peshawar." 

No one familiar with the modern researches in telepathy 
will have the slightest difficulty in explaining Gen. Eoberts' 
mysterious dream. At the time of its occurrence, but un- 
known to him, his sister, several hundred miles away, was 
lying extremely ill, or, perhaps, had already died. Either 
herself or some member of her family attendant at her bed- 
side was thinking of the distress which the news would occa- 
sion to General Eoberts, and by telepathic communication, 
unconsciously to both sender and receiver, his mind was af- 
fected with a vague feeling that a great calamity had hap- 
pened or was about to happen to some near relative. In his 
sleeping condition his mind was free from disturbance, and 
receptive to such communications, as his previous experiences 
had shown it to have been on other similar occasions. Tele* 
pathic experiences are by no means uncommon. There is 
nothing supernatural about them, and ordinarily they excite 



MAN— TELEPATHY. 279 

little or no attention. It is, for example, a very common 
occurrence that one's mind is suddenly and unaccountably 
turned upon some person whom he has not seen nor thought 
of for months or years, and within a few moments, perhaps 
while still thinking or speaking of him, that person makes 
his appearance. With the writer, even while yet a young 
man, that sort of coincidence was so frequent, and sometimes 
so amazing, as to attract his attention and cause him to 
speculate upon the meaning of the strange phenomenon; 
with the result that he became, at that time, firmly convinced 
of the existence of some mysterious power of the mind to 
communicate directly with other minds. The word "telep- 
athy" was not then known ; but the underlying fact had been 
dimly recognized from time immemorial, and had been sig- 
nified by current phrases, of homely import, used among 
English speaking peoples, such, for example, as "The Devil 
is always near when you are speaking of him," or "Speak 
of angels, and you will hear the rustle of their wings." 
Within the last thirty years scientific investigation has 
brought the subject more prominently to public attention, 
and added largely to our knowledge of the facts; with the 
result that the existence of "this strange faculty" is now 
generally recognized. 

Such a faculty, although unquestionably possessed by the 
mind, is entirely unnecessary for our existence in this life. 
The physical organs of sight, hearing, speech and touch are 
all that we need here either for communicating or receiving 
information; and nature has provided no organs, nothing 
but the naked mind itself, for the exercise of that other fac- 
ulty; thereby indicating unmistakably that she concurs in 
deeming its exercise unnecessary in this life. But what of 
the future life, where we shall be destitute of the physical 
body and its organs, and shall have to live as naked souls — 



280 MAN— TELEPATHY. 

shall we not need such a faculty there? How could we get 
along without it? The soul will need some mode of com- 
munication with others there, no less than it does here: but 
it will not need our organs for speaking or hearing, because 
they are material and are adapted to be operated onry 
through a material medium, the atmosphere ; it will not need 
our sense of touch, because that can be excited cnly by con- 
tact with material things; and it will not need our eyes, 
because they are useful only to transmute the vibrations of 
ether into corresponding vibrations of the optic nerve. How, 
then, will mind be able to communicate with mind in the 
future life? 

We answer that, in telepathy, we have already seen that, 
even in this present life, mind can communicate with mind 
directly, and without organs. There exists, therefore, some 
medium hj which such communication can be, and actually 
is, effected. That medium is presumably the luminiferous 
ether, an immaterial substance which fills all space and 
within which the soul must always dwell, whether in or out 
of the body. That medium is exactly adapted for the purpose 
of communicating to a distance, and we utilize it for that pur- 
pose even in this world. With a battery or magneto and a 
wire, we use it for our telegraphs and telephones; and, with- 
out the wire, we use it in what is called wireless telegraphy. 
To explain the mystery of the communication of intelligence 
from one to another, through any intervening distance in the 
future life, it is only necessary to assume that in telepathy 
the mind demonstrates its power to use the ether without bat- 
tery, magneto or wire. 

Clairvoyance is probably but a phase of telepathy; for 
it seems as reasonable to suppose that another mind~can as 
easily communicate to us, from any distance, a perception 



MAN— CLAIBVOYANCE. 281 

of the forms which it sees, as it can communicate to us 
knowledge of the facts which it sees or the emotions which it 
feels; for, after all, the difference consists merely in com- 
municating by pictures instead of by words, which are only 
the conventional representatives of mental pictures. We 
know that a landscape, by means of etheric light-waves, pro- 
duces a shadow-copy of itself upon the distant photographic 
plate: may not the mental landscape, existing in the mind 
of the spectator, produce, by the same means, a shadow-copy 
of itself upon the distant mind? This would explain why 
the clairvoyant experiences a consciousness of seeing the event 
or scene as though he were personally present at it. 

There has been so much humbug and deception prac- 
tised under pretense of clairvoyance that the very word has 
been, almost from the first, strongly suggestive of fraud. 
From this cause, many persons have come to believe that 
there is no reality in it, and, even when the clairvoyant is 
known to be thoroughly truthful, have charitably tried to 
account for his supposed experiences on the theory of tem- 
porary hallucination. But there is no reasonable doubt that 
clairvoyance is a fact. Swedenborg, in describing what he 
saw in the spirit world, may have been the victim of hal- 
lucinations; but in describing in detail, at Gottenburg, Ger- 
many, an event which he saw taking place at that moment, in 
Stockholm, Sweden, three hundred miles away, and which 
was afterwards found to have taken place there exactly at 
the time and in the manner described by him, he was cer- 
tainly under no illusion. Nor was Miss Ray under hal- 
lucination in describing at her father's breakfast table in 
"Washington, D. C, the burning of her relative's building 
twenty miles away, in Virginia, which had taken place dur- 
ing the night just past, and which had been seen by her in 



282 MAN— CLAIRVOYANCE. 

a dream. 1 There must be some rational explanation of these 
strange phenomena ; is there any more reasonable explanation 
than that here indicated? What do we know about pho- 
tography, mental or otherwise, or even about sight itself, 
except that things have the power of copying themselves 
whenever they find something that is sensitive to etheric 
vibrations, upon which to make the copy? 

"Mind-reading" is undoubtedly a telepathic phenomenon; 
and it is an interesting fact that, in mind-reading, the experi- 
ments made by the Society for Psychical Eesearch, at Lon- 
don, and detailed by Mr. Podmore in his book, The Nat- 
uralization of the Supernatural, show that the mind of the 
reader seems to see, indistinctly, pictures of the objects that 
are, at the moment, consciously in the mind that is being 
"read." The mind, then, must certainly have the power to 
transfer to another mind, and sometimes at a considerable 
distance, an image of the thing of which it is thinking. The 
observed facts thus indicate clearly that the mind not only 
has the power to excite etheric vibrations that may reach 
and affect another mind, but to excite them in such a way 
that they correspond in "form" (that is to say, in magni- 
tude, rate and force) to the light-waves that produce a pho- 
tographic picture. In other words: mind A photographs 
more or less distinctly upon mind B a copy of the thing seen 
either actually or in imagination by mind A. 

The wife of one of my acquaintances used to give her 
husband, on his return from business trips, most startling 
accounts of events in which he had participated during his 
absence and of which he had not informed her, describing 

1 Miss Ray "was a young lady of prominent social position at 
Washington. The event here referred to "was fully reported in the 
Washington newspapers at the time, and the coincidence of the dream 
and the fire was verified by them. 



MAN— TELEPATHIC PHENOMENA. 283 

persons, places, and conversations, with the utmost clearness 
and accuracy. Volumes might be filled with the details of 
similar well-authenticated cases. 

Probably, many, and perhaps all, of these cases could be 
explained by the theory of telepathy. The power of hypnotic 
suggestion to make the subject believe that he actually sees 
the thing or event suggested, is well known. If that power of 
suggestion be exercised telepathically, it would account for 
most of the cases of clairvoyance. 

A few years ago, a lady was riding in an omnibus in 
Paris, and passing the old church of Saint Thomas d'Aquin, 
with which she was familiar, was surprised to see that it had 
been frescoed in a new, original and striking way. Desiring 
to inspect it more closely, she returned by the same street a 
few hours later, and found to her amazement that she had 
been the victim of an illusion — the church had not been re- 
decorated, but was exactly as she had seen it long before that 
morning ! A few months later she mentioned the strange oc- 
currence to an acquaintance in New York, describing vividly 
the composition and coloring of the frescoing that had so 
mysteriously appeared and vanished, and which unquestion- 
ably, to his mind, was an old Italian work. He asked the 
lady to accompany him to the studio of a young American 
artist, who had spent some years studying in Europe. There 
he showed her a large copy made by this artist in a small 
Italian town. She recognized every detail of the fresco she 
had seen on Saint Thomas d'Aquin, as she went by in the 
omnibus. The incident is well authenticated. It has been 
suggested, as a possible explanation of the mystery, that the 
artist was passing through Paris, on his way to America, 
and happened to be in the omnibus when the lady experienced 
the illusion; that upon seeing the church, the Italian fresco 
was vividly brought to his mind, and that, in imagination, 



284 THE FUTURE LIFE. 

he applied it to the edifice; and that, unconsciously both to 
himself and the lady, what he saw with his mind's eye, she, 
by hypnotic suggestion telepathically communicated, seemed 
to see with her physical eyes. Whether this explanation be 
correct or not, can never be determined. But the facts of 
telepathy and clairvoyance reveal the existence of mental 
powers totally inconsistent with Spencer's theory of the evo- 
lution of the mind, and totally inconsistent with the funda- 
mental dogma of materialism. 

The facts that the soul, in the future life, will dwell in 
a medium which is capable of transmitting vibrations, and 
that vibrations, when harmoniously or rhythmically ar- 
ranged, excite pleasurable mental emotions, concur to indi- 
cate that we may reasonably expect to enjoy music in the 
future state of existence. Music is a form of universal 
language, through which one soul is able to impress an- 
other, almost to ecstasy, with the purest, grandest, and most 
beautiful sentiments and emotions. Like a fine oration or a 
poetical masterpiece, its direct action reaches and affects 
only the mind. In itself, it is as pure as the ether; and 
if at any time you hear a musical strain spoken of as "sen- 
suous," it is only because the person who so speaks of it 
has, through some previous experience, learned to asso- 
ciate it with impurity. As it is produced only by vibra- 
tions arranged to follow one another in a certain order, 
there is no conceivable reason why the ether should not be 
used to produce those vibrations. Indeed, Dr. Cahill is 
even now exhibiting in New York a magnificent orchestral 
instrument, of his invention, in which all the sounds are 
produced by electrical impulses, and are reinforced by ma- 
terial instrumentalities only to give them greater volume. 
Musical vibrations, which he produces even in this world 



THE FUTURE LIFE. 285 

by the ether, can certainly be produced in the next world 
through the same medium. 

Our imaginations will undoubtedly go with us to the 
next world, with all their powers of creating and enjoying 
the beautiful and sublime, together with our power of ex- 
tending that enjoyment to, or receiving it from, others. 
With souls freed from the body, and therefore no longer 
subject to heat, cold, hunger, thirst, fatigue or confinement, 
and in a world where we are vouchsafed every mental and 
moral faculty that we now possess, why should not our fu- 
ture life be a happy one — unless, indeed, memory should 
torture us with the recollection of our lost opportunities, or 
our evil deeds in the present life? Such recollections would 
be an eternal punishment; for lost opportunities can never 
be recovered, and evil deeds leave a stain which it may be 
difficult to wash out. 

In these reflections, we are not presuming to guess or 
speculate about what will be the conditions of the future 
life. We treat the subject as a matter for scientific in- 
quiry, basing our conclusions only upon known facts. It 
is too serious a matter to admit of speculation, or to justify 
giving expression to the baseless dreams of the imagination. 
But so far as God has given us facts, with reason to lead 
us to their meaning — so far, and no farther — we feel jus- 
tified in making known our conclusions. 

We can hardly conceive that the human soul, entering 
upon its new life, will find itself deprived of faculties or 
powers which it has in this world; for we have no reason 
to believe that it will be newly created or materially changed 
during its transition to the world of spirits. Undoubtedly, 
what it will be, it already is; for, otherwise, the personality 
that is to survive there would not be the same as that which 
had existed here 



286 QUESTIONS APPARENTLY SETTLED. 

We shall go there, then, with the memory of what had 
occurred here — probably with a memory clearer and more 
complete than we had ever manifested here; for it will 
not be hampered with the accidental or inherited imperfec- 
tions of a brain and nerve mechanism through which alone 
it had been obliged to act in this world. That memory will 
carry with it the power of speech, that is to say, the power 
to represent thought by arbitrary arrangements of etheric 
vibrations — for, in its ultimate analysis, that is all that 
there is in speech or language, whether here or elsewhere. 1 
Surrounded with a medium perfectly adapted to those vi- 
brations, there is no reason why the mind should not be 
able to communicate directly with other minds, not dimly 
and by vague impressions, but with a clearness and definite- 
ness impossible under the restrictive conditions of our 
present environment. 

The fact, verified as it has been by scientific investiga- 
tion, that telepathy is no chimera of the imagination, but 
is the manifestation of a power common to all minds, seems 
to settle four great questions: 

1. It renders tenable and reasonable the belief in the 
essential principle of modern spiritism — notwithstanding all 
the humbuggery practiced by the charlatan "mediums" who 
make their living by it; for it indicates how it may be pos- 
sible for spirits in another world to communicate with 
minds here. For the same reason, it justifies the belief in 
guidance by supernatural intelligences or "guardian angels/' 
and in the reasonableness of venerating the saints. 

1 When we read, the written or printed words cause certain etheric 
vibrations or impulses to reach the mind through the optic nerves and 
the brain, which translates and understands their meaning. In hear- 
ing speech, or in reading by the fingers, the impulses reach the brain 
through other nerves. On the nerve-telegraphs, these impulses are 
evidently of an etheric character. 



HEEBEET SPENCER. 287 

2. It removes the ecclesiastical doctrine of Divine Rev- 
elation from the category of superstitious fancies, by strip- 
ping from it the burden of supposed "miracle," and explain- 
ing it as in accordance with the laws of mind. 

3. It renders inconceivable both the assumption that 
the mind is material and the assumptions that it has evolved 
from matter or is a function of the brain. The telepathic 
powers of the mind are utterly inconsistent with all forms 
of materialism. 

4. It gives a finishing blow to the assumption that evo- 
lution is a general law of nature. 

Herbert Spencer, in his Principles of Psychology, con- 
tended that man's intellectual powers and his moral facul- 
ties are the products of evolution. So far as man's intel- 
lectual powers are concerned, the evidence in support of 
Mr. Spencer's contention is very unsatisfactory, and in many 
instances plainly contradicts his theory. It is, indeed, 
necessary to educate the intellectual faculties in order to 
render them fully available for the purposes even of this 
life; for no person is born with an innate knowledge of 
geography, grammar, history, literature, mathematics, or 
the sciences. These things have to be learned. But teach- 
ing a faculty that already exists is a very different thing 
from creating the faculty itself. It must be created, before 
it can be instructed. The many well-authenticated instances 
of prodigies, manifesting extraordinary intellectual powers 
even in childhood, are fatal to Mr. Spencer's theory. No 
theory of evolution can account for Zerah Colburn's being 
able, at six years of age, to solve correctly in twenty seconds 
and by mental processes alone, such questions as: "How 
many days and hours in 1,811 years?" or, at nine years of 
age, by the same processes, to solve correctly in a few sec- 
onds such questions as : "What is the square of 999,999 mul- 



288 THE MORAL FACULTY INNATE. 

tiplied by the square of 49 multiplied by 25?" Genius is 
not the product of evolution nor of heredity; for if it were, 
Napoleon would not have become master of Europe at the 
age of thirty; Von Haller would not have been writing es- 
says in the Greek language and compiling Hebrew and 
Chaldee grammars at the age of ten ; Mozart would not have 
given evidence of his extraordinary musical faculty at four, 
and have become an admirable composer at six; Burns and 
Byron, in their short lives of thirty-seven years, would not 
have achieved immortal fame for intellectual genius; 
"Blind Tom," a negro idiot, under legal guardianship all 
his life, would not have become, even while in childhood, 
an expert in musical performance; Alexander Hamilton 
would not have been an honored and able leader of Ameri- 
can thought and action at the age of twenty; and the un- 
educated Lincoln, master of eloquence, argument and state- 
manship, would never have risen from a backwoodsman's 
log cabin to the Presidency of the United States and a se- 
cure place in history by the side of George Washington. The 
intellectual faculties of the Deity, which we see manifested 
in the works of nature, surely did not originate by evolu- 
tion. This single example wrecks the whole fabric of Spen- 
cer's elaborate argument. 

I have no greater faith in his theory of the genesis of 
the moral faculties than in his speculations on the origiu 
of the intellect. The nature of the subject, however, makes 
it difficult to establish by tangible evidence the actual ex- 
istence of a distinctive moral sense or "faculty" as an in- 
nate element of the mind; and this difficulty lends a cer- 
tain degree of superficial plausibility to his argument that 
the moral sense is a product of evolution. 

But, before we proceed further with our discussion, let 
us be sure that we clearly understand our terms. Evolution 



THE MORAL FACULTY INNATE. 289 

does not mean creation, but only development. Before de- 
velopment can take place, there must be something to 
develop. A tree can develop out of a seed; but neither a tree 
nor anything else can develop out of nothing. Like a tree, 
the moral character is the result of development; and, like 
a tree, there must have been a something, a moral germ, out 
of which it could be developed. When fully developed, it 
towers above its source, branching and flowering into the 
moral sentiments, and is strong and very beautiful; but its 
form is the result of the innate life-force, urging it upward 
while the conflicting forces of its environment are acting 
upon it and gradually modifying and shaping its growth. 

In other words, it is necessary to assume the existence 
of an innate moral faculty, to begin with; then, and not till 
then, it is easy to account for the moral sentiments as de- 
veloped from it by exercise. But when Spencer declares, 
in effect, that "permanent and universal moral sentiments, 
with their correlative moral principles," result from the 
"evolution of mind by the accumulated effects of experience" 
he confuses his terms and thus spoils his argument. For it 
is not the evolution of mind in general, but the develop- 
ment of a particular faculty of the mind that results 
in permanent and universal moral sentiments, with their 
correlative moral principles. The distinction is rendered 
clear, from the argument which immediately follows the 
passage above quoted, and in which Mr. Spencer bases his 
"Evolution of moral feelings and ideas" upon "the multi- 
tudinous cases in which actions are determined and made 
habitual by experiences of pleasurable or painful results" 
without the slightest mental association of those actions 
with any possible benefit or injury that could in any way 
result from them. For, unless there is an innate moral 
faculty, why should pleasure result from a good act, or pain 



290 THE MORAL FACULTY INNATE. 

from a bad one, in the absence of any intellectual perception 
of beneficial or injurious consequences? His very statement 
shows that the result can be accounted for only upon one 
hypothesis, namely, the existence of an innate faculty which 
spontaneously approves good and disapproves evil. Mr. 
Spencer, to make his meaning perfectly clear, proceeds to 
distinguish between this spontaneous approval of good and 
disapproval of evil, on the one hand, and, on the other 
hand the more deliberate approval or disapproval that re- 
sults from an intellectual perception or realization of the 
practical benefits ("utility") or injuries ("inutility") re- 
sulting from such acts, saying : "But such intellectual recog- 
nitions of utility do not precede and cause the moral senti- 
ments. The moral sentiments precede such recognitions of 
utility, and malce them possible/' All this is plainly equiva- 
lent to saying that the spontaneous or intuitive moral faculty 
acts instantly and without regard to results, because it is its 
nature so to act — it cannot do otherwise; but that the in- 
tellectual faculties act more slowly, basing their conclusions 
upon their experience or observation of the consequences that 
generally result from such acts. 

It follows from this, that the "acts" of the innate moral 
faculty are mere blind impulses of attraction towards what 
is morally right and repulsion from what is morally wrong. 
The possession of such a faculty is not equivalent to the 
possession of moral character, nor equivalent to the posses- 
sion of conscience; but it furnishes the necessary foundation 
for both. If only there be superadded to it the knowledge 
of what is salutary and what is injurious, then we have 
both conscience and moral character. 

Thus the moral faculty itself is innate and automatic. 
It comes directly from the hand of the Creator; and is no 
more susceptible of education or change than is the at- 



THE MORAL SENTIMENTS. 291 

traction of gravitation or of the needle to the magnet. But 
the knowledge which unites with it to form conscience and 
character is not innate, but is an intellectual acquirement 
based upon past "experiences," and therefore susceptible 
of education and change. A resulting conscience or moral 
character may thus by faulty education be temporarily mis- 
led into the honest approval of that which, in the light of 
further knowledge, would clearly be seen to be wrong. 
Hence, we judge men leniently when we see that their errors 
are the result of a wrong education; for the wrong which 
they do does not indicate the absence of the innate moral 
faculty, but only the mistake made by their intellectual fac- 
ulties. 1 

In training the moral character, the purpose is two-fold, 
namely, first, to develop a clear and correct intellectual 
judgment as to what is intrinsically right and what is in- 
trinsically wrong, and, secondly, to develop and strengthen 
the will to do what is right and avoid or oppose what is 
wrong. The natural (or innate) tendency of every person 
is to do what is right; and this he would inevitably do in 
every instance if he knew what was right and were free to 
do it. But he is not free — a thousand temptations assail 
him on all sides, urging him to disregard his sense of right 
and to do what appears at the time to be for his personal in- 
terest. Life thus becomes a never-ending succession of 

1 The defect in Mr. Spencer 's argument resulted from his con- 
founding the moral sentiments with the innate moral sense or faculty. 
It is the moral sense that precedes "the intellectual recognitions of 
utility, and makes them possible. " The moral sentiments, as he cor- 
rectly states, do not precede, but follow such recognitions of utility, 
and are the joint product of them and the moral sense or faculty. 

Spencer had undertaken the impossible task of deriving every- 
thing from nothing, by the processes of evolution. Hence, the result 
of his argument is, that his "moral sentiments" are left suspended 
in the air, with their origin wholly unaccounted for. 



292 ALLEGOEY OF ADAM AND EVE. 

struggles between his sense of duty and his self-interest — 
between right and self. 

The story of Adam and Eve is an allegorical myth. 
Written thousands of years ago by some unknown but 
thoughtful mind who had pondered much on the problems 
of human life, it was evidently intended, not as an actual 
history, but as an allegorical fable typifying actual condi- 
tions; and as such, there are important lessons to be learned 
from it. The only wonder is, that there has ever been any 
doubt of its real character as a literary production. 

According to the allegory, Adam and Eve, the last and 
most important of God's creations, were formed from the 
dust of the earth, and vivified by the breath of their Crea- 
tor. With that breath, they received intuitive moral sense, 
and felt, but did not intellectually know, the difference be- 
tween good and evil. They were therefore innocent and 
pure, as every soul is until it has been subjected to tempta- 
tion. Their Creator permitted them to enjoy all the plea- 
sures of life (in allegorical language, permitted them to eat 
the fruit of the garden in which they found themselves) 
but showed them one tree in the center of the Garden, where 
it was accessible to all, and told them not to eat of its fruit 
lest they should die. 

Then came the Tempter (the devil of self-interest) and 
told them that the forbidden fruit was delicious, and that it 
would not kill them, but would only open their eyes to the 
knowledge of good and evil and make them become as 
gods. They yielded to his persuasion, ate the forbidden 
fruit, and became as gods, intellectually, knowing good and 
evil. Innocent no longer, they were no longer fit for the 
Garden of innocence, and were banished from it. 

That story, in its essential elements, is as true today as 
it was in Adam's time. That same old devil of self-interest 



MORAL EDUCATION. 293 

is the author of all the moral evil that exists in this world, 
and of all the physical suffering that has directly or in- 
directly resulted from it. He has access to us at all times, 
and his persuasive powers are exceedingly hard to be re- 
sisted. The perfect man would be he who, intellectually 
knowing good and evil, should have the moral strength al- 
ways to do right and never wrong. We know of only one 
historic character who has exhibited such perfection. 

The object of all correct moral education is, to train 
the character up fully to that degree of perfection. For 
such a training, no better conditions can be conceived of 
than those attending this life on Earth. We stay here long 
enough to be subjected to every selfish temptation that flesh 
or mind is heir to; and, in most cases long enough to realize 
the folly of yielding to them. 1 We are surrounded by con- 
ditions which tend to entice or force us from the paths of 
rectitude and altruism and by other conditions which equally 
tend to antagonize such misleading influences. Under such 
opposing conditions, the intellect cannot but be instructed 
and the moral will strengthened. On the other hand, self- 
interest is insidious and powerful. Its prizes are immediate 
and alluring. Placed closely before our eyes, they hide 
everything that is farther away, and thus deceive us as to 
the real situation. We need every aid that we can get, 
to counteract these influences. And we are not without 
such aid. As Herbert Spencer truly remarks: 1 "Approba- 
tion and reprobation, divine and human, come to be associ- 
ated in thought with sympathetic and unsympathetic ac- 
tions respectively. The commands of the creed, the legal 

1 It is conceivable that, in cases where life is prematurely cut 
off, the course of instruction may be finished in the other world, 
under the tuition of relatives, friends, or other teachers who have 
profited by their experience in this life. 

1 Principles of Psychology, p. 531. 



294 MORAL EDUCATION. 

penalties, the code of social conduct, unitedly enforce them; 
and every child as it grows up, has daily impressed on it by 
the words and faces and voices of those around, the au- 
thority of those highest principles of conduct." 

The result is, that the mind is trained not only to know, 
but to realize, the folly of evil. I doubt if there is a crim- 
inal so hardened in sin that in his moments of calm think- 
ing he does not feel that it would have been better for him 
to have lived an honorable and upright life. But associa- 
tions are strong and moral will weak; and there are few 
who find themselves able, here in this world, to break away 
from the old influences. The disposition to break away from 
them is, after all that can be said, the real test of character. 
If the disposition is strengthened by our experiences here 
on Earth, then life, even though it may not have made the 
best use of its opportunities, cannot be called a failure; for 
that which tends, in any degree, to better fit us for an eter- 
nal existence cannot but be regarded as of infinite impor- 
tance. 

In chapter XIX, considering the attributes of God, 
as revealed by Himself in the physical works of nature, we 
came to the question whether those works furnish complete 
evidence of His attributes, and said: "Only in two re- 
spects do they fall short, namely, in that they do not re- 
veal His moral nature nor His Prescience. It is impossible 
that they should reveal His moral nature; for that can be 
made known only in two ways, to wit, firstly, by the crea- 
tion of moral agencies and the government of them by moral 
laws, and, secondly, by direct revelation of His moral pur- 
poses — neither of which subjects has come within the pur- 
view of our discussion, up to this point. Nor have we had 
occasion to touch upon the subject of Prescience. But 
when we shall come to consider Man and the question of his 



EEVELATION OF GOD COMPLETED. 295 

immortality, it is possible that the revelation of God may 
be completed." 

It was not possible that the physical works of nature 
should reveal God's moral attributes, because the moral is 
entirely apart from the physical and there is no relation 
between them. But the creation of Man with a moral sense 
furnishes the evidence of God's moral sense. As we have 
seen, the moral sense or faculty, considered by itself alone, 
is simply an intuitive predisposition to good and aversion 
from evil. To perfect a moral character, this intuitive moral 
sense must be combined with a complete intellectual realiza- 
tion of the utter inutility of evil — inutility not only to our- 
selves, but to all other beings. In God* alone is there an 
absolute knowledge of all things past and present. But 
the future grows out of the past and present; hence, to a 
Being who has absolute knowledge of past and present, and 
absolute knowledge of the nature and laws of mind and mat- 
ter, all things in the future must be foreknown with infinite 
certainty. To such a Being, there can be no past, present 
or future, but only one eternal NOW. 

In man, therefore, with his intuitive but uneducated 
moral sense, is the revelation of God's attributes completed. 
It required the physical universe to make known His great 
creative and constructive Mind, His eternal and incorporeal 
existence, and His omnipotence, omnipresence, immanence, 
and omniscience. It required a moral agent, man, to re- 
veal His implanting of a moral sense in His intelligent 
creatures; to discover that the moral sense thus implanted 
proves the existence of such a sense in the Divine Mind; 
and to see that such a sense, when combined with an intel- 
lectual knowledge of the consequences of good and evil acts, 
results in moral character and brings us nearer to the Di- 
vine standard of excellence. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
Prevision". 

The human mind has another power rarely exhibited but 
conclusively proved to exist, namely, the power of intuitive 
foreknowledge of future events, or, in other words, Pre- 
vision. How it can be possible for a person absolutely to 
foreknow a future event is, in this present sphere of ex- 
istence, utterly inconceivable. We have no difficulty in un- 
derstanding how he can, by processes of reasoning from facts 
already known, arrive at the conclusion that a specific event 
will probably occur, nay, that it is certain to occur, if noth- 
ing shall happen to prevent it; and we can calculate for 
thousands of years to come, the eclipses of the sun and moon, 
the occultations of the stars, the ebb and flow of the tides, 
and other events that recur regularly at certain periods in 
accordance with the known laws of nature; but how we can 
foresee that a particular person, in sound health, free to 
obey the dictates of his own volition and without any pre- 
arrangement on the part of himself or anybody else, will 
at a future time be at a certain place and there pass through 
certain specific experiences, is beyond our power to explain 
or understand. Yet, if human testimony is to be believed, 
many instances of such foreknowledge have occurred. 

It is many years since it was possible for me to doubt 
the existence of this strange power of the mind, since, in 
early youth, I personally witnessed an event which conclu- 
sively proved its existence and made a vivid and ineffaceable 

296 



PREVISION. 297 

impression upon my memory. The interest and importance 
of the subject justify a statement of the facts in detail. 

At that time, my father, Isaac Hill, was living in the 
town of Lincolnville, about seven miles from Belfast, Maine. 
My mother had a brother, Gilbert Hall, who, from his early 
manhood had been a sailor, accustomed to make long voy- 
ages to the East Indies, the Mediterranean, and other dis- 
tant parts, and, although intelligent and fairly educated, 
seldom or never while absent communicated with the family 
at home. My father was a man of education and intelli- 
gence, and a pronounced free thinker, relying upon the dic- 
tates of his own reason, and entirely free from superstition. 
One evening, the family were notified that we were to have 
an early breakfast the next morning, because my father 
would be obliged to spend the day at Belfast, on a matter of 
business. At breakfast the next morning, I was surprised 
to hear him tell my mother about a dream that he had had 
during the night — surprised and interested, because the tell- 
ing of dreams was the violation of a rigid rule of the family 
— my father had strictly forbidden it to all the members 
of the family, on the ground that dreams were vagaries of 
the imagination, due to restlessness and unsound sleep, and 
that to tell them not only excited superstitious notions in 
the minds of the children, but tended to superinduce the 
habit of dreaming. Yet here he was, telling a dream him- 
self ! I clearly remember the astonishment which that fact 
produced in my mind, and the interest which the subject of 
the dream, and his manner of telling it, further aroused as 
he went on. 

He commenced by saying that never before in his life had 
he had a dream that resembled it; that he seemed not to 
be asleep, but wide awake, and the imaginary occurrences 
of the dream produced on his mind so strong an impres- 



298 PEEVislOlsr. 

sion of verity that, since rising, he found it difficult to dis- 
abuse his consciousness of the impression that the events of 
the dream were actual experiences through which he had 
passed while awake — he remembered them as facts, and not 
as a dream. He then went on to say that, in his dream, the 
morning had come, he had got an early breakfast, entered 
his carriage, and taken the road to Belfast; that, on reach- 
ing a spot about three-quarters of a mile from home, where 
began a long decline to a brook crossed by a bridge, known 
as Martin's causeway, he observed a man commencing to 
descend the opposite incline toward the bridge; that at first 
the distance was too great to enable him to make out who 
the pedestrian was, but he observed that he carried a light- 
colored overcoat hung over his arm; that as they came 
nearer each other, he thought the man looked like my 
mother's brother, Gilbert, and before they met he saw that 
it was indeed his brother-in-law. They met at the bridge, 
and, after the usual greetings, my father inquired how my 
uncle happened to be there at that time of the morning, 
saying that he did not know that his ship had arrived; to 
which my uncle replied that it had arrived at Boston two 
or three days before, and, after calling on his two sisters 
there, he had decided to run down to Maine and visit my 
mother, and had taken the boat for Belfast, intending to 
drive out to her home, but, on arriving at Belfast, he had 
found the morning so pleasant that he had abandoned the 
idea of driving and started on foot. There was some fur- 
ther dream-conversation between them, the particulars of 
which I do not remember, after which, according to the 
dream, my father resumed his journey to Belfast, and my 
uncle continued his way to our house. 

I remember that at the conclusion of the story my mother 
remarked that she was not expecting my uncle and was not 



PREVISION. 299 

aware that he was in the country; and that, upon my 
fathers rejoining that he could not get rid of the impres- 
sion that he had actually met him at Martin's causeway, my 
mother said: "What a strange thing if you should meet 
him there !" 

The breakfast was over, my father started for Belfast. 
About an hour after he had gone, I was startled to hear a 
sudden scream from my mother, who was in the hallway, 
and, turning to see what was the matter, I found that my 
uncle was just entering the door, unannounced! Her first 
words I shall never forget: "Did you meet Isaac?" nor his 
reply: "Yes, I met him exactly at the place — he told me 
of his dream, and everything took place precisely as he 
foresaw it!" I observed that he was carrying a light-grey 
summer overcoat hung over his arm. 

At the supper-table, my father had returned, and the 
matter in all its details was rehearsed and discussed by the 
three. Not a single variation could be found between the 
dream and its fulfillment. To say that I was an interested 
listener, is to put it mildly — it seemed to me a miracle ; and 
the facts burned into my memory an impression which has 
never been effaced, and never will be, as long as the brain 
retains its normal vigor. From that time, I have personally 
known that the power of intuitive foreknowledge is one of 
our mental faculties, however rarely it may be exercised, 
and however difficult of explanation it may be. 

When I was about eighteen years old, an incident oc- 
curred in the neighborhood where I lived, showing the same 
strange phenomenon of intuitive foreknowledge of future 
events. A young man named Leeds was a cousin and 
neighbor of one of my classmates and intimate friends. He 
was employed in transporting kiln-wood and other mer- 
chandise down the river, upon a large scow. One night, the 



300 PREVISION". 

family were startled by wild shrieks from his bed-room. On 
entering the room, they found him sitting up in bed in a 
condition of agonized terror. In response to their inquiries, 
he told them that he had been awakened by a frightful 
dream, in which he seemed to be on his boat going down 
the river, and, on arriving at the bridge at Thomaston, the 
boat swerved from its course in consequence of the swift 
current, struck one of the piles of the bridge, and caused the 
draw to fall on his head, breaking his neck. A few days 
after the dream, he was killed at the spot designated, and 
in exactly the way foreseen. There never was such an acci- 
dent on that river before, nor has there been one since. The 
recollection of my father's experience caused me, within a 
few days after the accident, to make particular inquiries of 
my classmate as to the current reports of the warning 
dream; and I give the circumstances as he related them to 
me, and as I had already heard of them through public 
rumor. I may add that I knew my classmate intimately 
till his death a few years ago, and that his life-long reputa- 
tion for truthfulness was irreproachable. 

The two cases referred to are mentioned here because 
they were practically within my own knowledge. Since the 
time of Pilate's wife, many similar incidents have been re- 
corded and published. But history, as formerly written, was 
an unreliable witness, too indolent or credulous to make 
any effort to verify her narrative; and the consequence is, 
that, with the exact methods of modern investigation, we 
find ourselves obliged to reject the greater portion of her 
supposed treasures as worthless. But well authenticated 
modern instances of intuitive foreknowledge are known, such, 
for example, as that of Colonel Garesche, which was widely 
published and commented upon, in this country, in the 
early days of 1863. Colonel Garesche was a brilliant young 



PREVISION. 301 

officer, chief of staff to General Posecrans, who commanded 
the northern army in Tennessee. Late in 1862, he was 
warned in a vivid dream, several times repeated, that he 
was to be killed in the first battle in which he should there- 
after be present. Although a brave officer, he was strongly 
affected by the persistent recurrence of this dream; and he 
told some of his fellow officers about it, and made his will. 
In the first battle which thereafter ensued (the battle of 
Stone Eiver, December 31, 1862), he was instantly killed at 
General Eosecrans' side by a cannon ball which carried 
away his head. 

An interesting incident is related by Carl Shurz in "The 
South After the War" 1 . The Tiedemann family, of Phila- 
delphia, were old friends of General Shurz, who had been 
associated with Tiedemann in the German disturbances in 
1848, and, like him had afterwards sought an asylum in 
America. Summoned to Washington by President John- 
son early in the summer of 1865, Gen. Shurz went by way 
of Philadelphia, and, on the way, spent an evening at the 
Tiedemann residence. The family had become interested in 
spiritualism, and one of the daughters, a bright girl of about 
fifteen years of age, had developed the powers of a writing 
"medium." While he was at the house, it was resolved to 
have a seance. After what purported to be a communica- 
tion from Schiller, occurred the following, which I give in 
the words of General Shurz: 

"After several minutes had elapsed, the girl wrote that 
Abraham Lincoln's spirit was present. I asked whether he 
knew for what purpose President Johnson had summoned 
me to Washington. The answer came: * c He wants you to 
make an important journey for him/ I asked where the 
journey would take me: 'He will tell you to-morrow/ I 

i McClure's Magazine, April, 1908, pp. 658-659. 



302 PEE VISION. 

asked further whether I should undertake that journey. 
Answer: 'Yes, do not fail/ (I may add, by the way, that 
at that time I had not the slightest anticipation as to what 
President Johnson's intention with regard to me was; the 
most plausible supposition I entertained was that he wished 
to discuss with me the points urged in my letters.) 

"Having disposed of this matter, I asked whether the 
spirit of Lincoln had anything more to say to me. The 
answer came: 'Yes; you will be senator of the United 
States/ This struck me as so fanciful that I could hardly 
suppress a laugh, but I asked further: 'From what State?' 
Answer: 'Prom Missouri/ This was more provokingly 
mysterious still; but there the conversation ceased. Hardly 
anything could have been more improbable at that time than 
that I should be senator of the United States from the 
State of Missouri. My domicile was in Wisconsin, and I 
was then thinking of returning there. I had never thought 
of removing from Wisconsin to Missouri, and there was not 
the slightest prospect of my ever doing so. But — to fore- 
stall my narrative — two years later I was surprised by an 
entirely unsought and unexpected business proposition 
which took me to St. Louis, and in January, 1869, the Leg- 
islature of Missouri elected me senator of the United States. 
I then remembered the prophecy made to me at the spirit- 
seance in the house of my friend Tiedemann in Philadel- 
phia, which during the intervening years I had never thought 
of. I should hardly have trusted my memory with regard to 
it, had it not been verified by friends who witnessed the 
occurrence/ 5 

I will not attempt to account for, or explain, the strange 
occurrence narrated by General Shurz. His word is a suf- 
ficient guarantee that it took place substantially as de- 
scribed by him. Those who believe in spiritism will find no 



PREVISION. 303 

difficulty in accounting for it on the theory that the message 
which Miss Tiedemann thought she received was a com- 
munication from the spirit of Abraham Lincoln. Those 
who are not prepared to accept that theory have no other 
alternative, so far as I see, except to assume that it was a 
manifestation of that strange power of the human mind to 
foresee future events, of which I have already given several 
examples. If it was a message from another world, it proves 
that the mind of man continues to exist after the death of 
the body. If it was a manifestation of any power of the 
mind itself to foreknow future events, it puts an end to all 
Haeckelian and Spencerian theories of the spontaneous gen- 
eration of life and of the evolution of mind from matter. 

An incident occurred in the life of the actor, Eichard 
Mansfield, which is worthy of reference here. I give it in 
his own words, narrating, in his lecture before the faculty 
and students of the University of Chicago, in February, 
1898, the pitiful experiences through which he passed in his 
early professional career. After describing the desperate 
condition to which he had become reduced at the time of the 
incident, he continues as follows: 1 

"This was the condition of affairs when a strange hap- 
pening befell me. Eetiring for the night in a perfectly hope- 
less frame of mind, I fell into a troubled sleep and dreamed 
dreams. Finally toward morning this fantasy came to me. 
I seemed in my disturbed sleep to hear a cab drive up to 
the door in a great hurry. There was a knock, and in my 
dream I opened the door and found D'Oyly Carte's yellow- 
haired secretary standing outside. He exclaimed: 

"Can you pack up and catch the train in ten minutes 
to rejoin the company?" 

"I can," was the dream-land reply. There seemed to be 

^ee Scribner's Magazine for September, 1908, pp. 307, 310. 



304 PEEVISION. 

a rushing about while I swept a few things into my bag, 
then the cab door was slammed and we were off to the 
station. 

"This was all a dream, but here is the inexplicable 
denouement. The dream was so vivid and startling that I 
immediately awoke with a strange uncanny sensation and 
sprang to my feet. It was six o'clock and only bare and 
gloomy surroundings met my eye. On a chair rested my 
traveling bag, and through some impulse that I could not 
explain at the time, and cannot account for now, I picked 
it up and hurriedly swept into it a few articles that had 
escaped the pawn-shop. It did not take long to complete 
my toilet, and then I sat down to think. 

"Presently, when I had reached • the extreme point of 
dejection, a cab rattled up, there was a knock at the door 
and there stood D'Oyly Carte's secretary, just as I saw him 
in my dream. He seemed in a great flurry, and cried out: 

"Can you pack up and reach the station in ten minutes 
to rejoin the company?" 

"I can," said I calmly, pointing to my bag, "for I was 
expecting you." 

"The man looked a little startled by this seemingly 
strange remark, but bundled me into the cab without fur- 
ther ado and we hurried to the station exactly in accord with 
my dream. That was the beginning of a long engagement, 
and, although I have known hard times since, it was the 
turning point of my career. 

"How do you account for the dream and its realization?" 
exclaimed Mansfield in answer to a rather incredulous ques- 
tion. "I have already said that I have no theory whatever 
in regard to the matter. I do not account for it. It is 
enough for me to know that I dreamed certain things which 
were presently to be realized in the exact order of the dream. 



PREVISION. 305 

Having no superstitions, it is impossible to philosophize 
over the occurrence. All I know is that everything hap- 
pened in the exact order that I have stated." 

Another remarkable instance of foreknowledge of future 
events occurred at London, England, in the latter part of 
March, 1903, and was witnessed by a number of well-known 
people, among others Mr. "W. T. Stead, the Editor of the 
Revieiv of Reviews. Mr. Stead had invited several distin- 
guished guests including Earl Gray, the Servian Minister, 
Mijatovitch, and others, to assemble at his rooms, on March 
20, 1903, to witness some experiments in clairvoyance. The 
conditions were not favorable and the experiments were at 
that time unsuccessful. The clairvoyant was a Mrs. Bur- 
chell, whom Mr. Stead describes as a simple, unread York- 
shire woman from Halifax (England), of whose psychic 
powers he had heard good reports. Mr. Stead, who is my 
authority for this narrative, continues his statement as fol- 
lows: 

"As a kind of consolation for my disappointed guests, 
I invited a score of them to dinner at the restaurant Gatti 
and Eodesane, in the Strand. After dinner several of them 
left and about ten to twelve remained behind. As condi- 
tions were better I proposed to give Mrs. Burchell another 
chance. 

"Various articles were placed in her hands concerning 
which she made statements more or less surprising, but not 
of historic interest. 

"At last a Servian gentleman present, whose nationality 
was unknown to the clairvoyant, handed her a sheet of note 
paper on which was written the autograph of Alexander. 
Nothing was said as to the person from whom the writing 
came. No questions were asked and no information was 
given. 



306 PREVISION. 

"Mrs. Burchell did not open the paper, but held it folded 
in her hand. She had hardly grasped it when she ex- 
claimed : 

" 'This belongs to royalty.' 

"Then, becoming very excited, she fell from her seat 
and was only saved from striking the floor by her neighbor, 
who caught her. She exclaimed in great agitation: 

" Terrible, terrible !' 

"Then she collected herself and said: 

" This is a bloody scene ; there is murder being done. 
I see the inside of a palace. There are a King and a Queen. 
They are together alone. Then men, soldiers, burst into 
the room and attack them. They kill the King. He is 
dead. And the Queen, oh, how she cries for mercy and begs 
for her life! But I fear for her. I cannot see whether 
she escapes or not The King, he is killed. Oh, it is ter- 
rible/ 

"Only the Servian gentleman and myself knew that the 
sheet of paper bore the King of Servians signature. As for 
the clairvoyant, I doubt very much if she knows where 
Servia is, or that such a monarch as Alexander existed. 

"After the party broke up my Servian guest reported 
to Mijatovitch, the Servian Minister, what the clairvoyant 
had- said. 

"Mijatovitch came down to see me for confirmation. I 
repeated to him as exactly as possible what had taken place. 

"He went home and wrote urgent private dispatches to 
King Alexander, warning him and begging him to be on 
his guard, not only when he went abroad, but especially 
against an attack that might be made upon him in the 
palace. 

"The warning was in vain. The King and Queen were 



PEE VISION. 307 

assassinated in their palace as the clairvoyant had foreseen 
three months before. 1 

"Of the absolute truth of this I can vouch of my own 
knowledge. So can all my other guests. The evidence of 
the Servian Minister is conclusive confirmation as to the 
prediction and its date/' 

There can be no doubt that Mrs. Burchell, in England, 
foresaw in detail a tragedy that was to occur more than 
two months afterward, in Servia, and in which the King 
and Queen would be slain by a band of assassins. 

In the Chicago Tribune, of January 21, 1902, appeared 
the following special dispatch: 

"Pittsburg, Pa., Jan. 20.— The dreams of Edward Glaub 
of Eoss Station on the West Pennsylvania road came true. 
Three nights in succession he dreamt that his little six-year 
old sister Mary was burning to death. Yesterday afternoon, 
she, with a number of others, was skating at Eoss Grove. 
There were about a dozen boys in the skating party, includ- 
ing the girl's brother, Edward, aged 16. A fire was built 
by the skaters. 

"Mary was standing near the fire when the flames blew 
against her clothes, setting them on fire. Her brother tore 
the burning clothes from the girl. 

"She was taken home and a physician called, but despite 
his efforts the child died a few hours afterward. Edward's 
hands and arms were badly burned." 

It will be observed that the instances of prophetic fore- 
knowledge above mentioned were manifested in two differ- 
ent ways, to wit: all except two, in dreams; those two (nar- 
rated, respectively, by Gen. Shurz and Mr. Stead), in the 
utterances of so-called "mediums" during the condition 
which they style "trance," in which they profess to receive 

2 The assassination was on June 11, 1903. 



308 TRANCES AND DREAMS. 

spirit-communications from the other world. As the prog- 
nostications above referred to were all verified by the sub- 
sequent happening of the predicted events, the necessary- 
inference seems to be that, in sleep, the human mind oc- 
casionally passes into the state or condition which the spirit- 
ualists call "trance," and, while in that condition, is able 
to exercise powers that are not available to it under normal 
conditions. And it may be remarked that, on awaking from 
these trance-dreams, the mind seems to distinguish between 
them and ordinary dreams by their greater vividness and by 
the impression which they produce of actual waking ex- 
periences. 

Ordinary dreams are undoubtedly occasioned by phys- 
ical causes; the body is not perfectly at rest; the brain, ex- 
cited by fatigue, disordered by impure blood, or disquieted 
by nerves bringing to it sensations from other disturbed 
organs, is partially awake and its cells more or less active; 
the mind, dwelling within the brain and acted upon by its 
cells, unconsciously translates their confused reports into 
equally-confused ideas, and there flits before the mental 
vision a phantasmagoria of half-formed thoughts, shapes, 
memories and scenes. They are due to the action and re- 
action between the excited brain-cells and the indwelling 
mind, and have no significance beyond that. But the trance- 
dreams are not due to these causes. They apparently come 
directly to the mind itself, uninfluenced by the brain-cells; 
and they are, therefore, seen clearly and distinctly, and 
leave a strong impression of reality. 

Thus there are two entirely different kinds or classes of 
dreams — the one, arising from physical disturbance; the 
other from telepathic communication. When the latter con- 
vey impressions of events or scenes past or present, they 
may have been caused by the influence of any other mind. 



PREVISION. 309 

But when they convey accurate foreknowledge of future 
events, they must have been caused, directly or indirectly, 
by the only One who foreknows the future. I see no es- 
cape from this conclusion. 

Another strange case of foreknowledge has just come to 
hand. Professor William H. Allen, an educator well-known 
in Nebraska, South Dakota, and elsewhere, and a man of 
the highest character, was five years ago warned in a dream 
that he would be involved in serious danger at about the 
time of his fifty-second birthday anniversary, and might 
lose his life: but that, if he passed over that crisis in safety, 
he would live till past the age of eighty. At the time of the 
dream, he was under fifty years of age, was in perfect 
health, and had no reason for expecting any misfortune in 
the early future. 

On March 10, 1906, three days after his fifty-second an- 
niversary, he suffered a light stroke of apoplexy, but in a 
few days he was apparently well again, and had resumed 
the discharge of his official duties as Superintendent of 
Public Schools at Edgemont, South Dakota. On the 24th 
of March, 1906, however, fourteen days after his first stroke, 
he suffered a second stroke which was instantly fatal. The 
facts are given in an affidavit by his widow, printed as an 
appendix, at the end of this volume. 

Aside from the great interest of the fact that Professor 
Allen was forewarned at least two years prior to his sud- 
den and fatal illness, the most remarkable feature of this 
strange case is that it indicates at once free-will and pre- 
destination. Professor Allen was informed in his dream 
that soon after his fifty-second birthday he would be in ex- 
treme danger of his life ; he was repeatedly warned to guard 
against that danger; and was assured that if he passed that 
crisis successfully, he would live to be over eighty years of 



310 PREDESTINATION— FREE WILL. 

age. In other words, the danger would certainly be there 
(predestination) ; but he might avoid it by availing him- 
self of the proper means — (free will). The Church has al- 
ways insisted that predestination and free-will were both 
true ; but men have been unable to reconcile these apparently 
conflicting dogmas. Now comes this prophetic dream in 
which both are treated as true, and of which its prophetic 
character is verified by its fulfilment ! Are events predes- 
tined, in the sense that they are known beforehand to the 
Infinite Mind; and at the same time are men allowed to 
shape their own destinies as they will? All I can say is 
(what has so often been said before) that we seem to be 
able to do as we please, and at the same time we know that 
a man's death by accident or by assassination or other cause, 
has often been foreknown long before its occurrence. Pre- 
destination seems to be God's part in human affairs; free 
will, to be man's part. As we have no control over God's 
part, wisdom suggests that we should not bother our heads 
about it, but attend to our own business by taking care to 
do our part well. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
Conclusion. 

"When we examine the so-called "theories" by which the 
atheist attempts to justify his atheism, it does not take long 
to ascertain that they are not "theories" at all, but simply 
conjectures and assumptions absolutely unsupported by evi- 
dence. Why any reasoning intelligence should suffer itself 
to be misled by them is utterly incomprehensible; for every 
one of them has been disproved, again and again, by unan- 
swerable evidence. 

Certain facts are decisive of both of the great ques- 
tions discussed in this volume, sweeping away with irresist- 
ible force every false assumption relied upon by scepticism. 
Tims, one fact alone, the fact of creative contrivance in the 
works of nature, is decisive of the existence of an intelli- 
gent Creator. It can be explained on no other theory; and 
it cannot be refuted, for the proofs of it are found every- 
where. 

So, also, the fact that the human mind occasionally ex- 
hibits intuitive foreknowledge of future events is conclusive 
of the existence of God; because it shows that events are 
foreordained long before their occurrence. It is also, to- 
gether with telepathy and clairvoyance, strongly persuasive 
of the survival of the soul after the death of the body. On 
no other theory can we account for the possession by the 
mind of these powers or faculties, which are obviously un- 
necessary in this life, but are plainly adapted to the condi- 
tions of a life in which the physical body will no longer clog 

311 



312 CONCLUSION. 

the powers of the soul. When we consider that God is in- 
corporeal and is eternal, we see that there is no inherent 
improbability in the doctrine of the immortality of the 
human soul. When we further reflect that the embodied 
soul has the power to think, to know, to will, to act, to un- 
derstand, to judge, to choose, to remember, to contrive, to 
plan — all of which are attributes of the Almighty Mind as 
He has revealed Himself in nature, we are forced to the 
conclusion that as God is eternal, so must the soul of man 
be immortal. Many additional considerations present them- 
selves to fortify that conclusion; and nothing can be alleged 
against it. 

Nothing ? Nothing but the unfounded conjectures of the 
atheist. He conjectures that life (and with it, mind), had 
its origin in the chemical action of matter upon matter; 
and therefore will not believe that it can survive the body. 
But if it be true that the mind ever, at any time, or under 
any circumstances, has been known to manifest intuitive 
foreknowledge of a particular future event; or if it be true 
that telepathy and clairvoyance are powers of the mind ; then 
it cannot be true that life or mind is the result of chemical 
action or is from any material origin. But telepathy, clair- 
voyance, and intuitive foreknowledge are well known phe- 
nomena of mental action. There can be no doubt of their 
reality, and, therefore, no doubt that the idea of "spon- 
taneous generation" is sheer delusion. The known facts are 
decisive against it; and there is absolutely no evidence in 
its favor. 

Another equally unfounded conjecture is, that the mind 
is merely a function or result of brain action. The same 
facts, which were fatal to spontaneous generation are equally 
fatal to this conjecture also. And, further, science assures 
us, as we have seen, that mind is not the function or result 



CONCLUSION 313 

of brain action, but is an immaterial something which, while 
here in the body, makes use of the brain to transmit to it 
information and to execute its orders. The brain is scien- 
tifically known to be a mere telegraph mechanism which 
acts, in part, automatically, and, in part, in response to the 
volitions of the mind. The intricacy of its construction, 
and the astonishing skill and ingenuity with which its mil- 
lions of cells, ganglions, fibers and nerves have been com- 
bined together and adapted to cooperate in the performance 
of its functions, furnish clear and convincing proof of cre- 
ative contrivance, but give no support to the vagaries of 
materialism. 

AYhence, then, came the mind — that mysterious, impon- 
derable, intangible, immaterial entity that dominates the 
world, weighs the sun and planets, and reads the future? Is 
there any conceivable answer to that question except the 
answer given by Darwin in the last chapter of the "Origin 
of Species"? Certain it is that all the philosophy of ma- 
terialism is powerless to explain the immaterial. 

It is powerless even to explain the material. "When it 
tells us that evolution accounts for the development of the 
body, it stands aghast in the presence of the enormous void 
spaces that separate the links of the evolutionary chain, and 
can only answer that "links" are "missing," and that guess- 
work must take their place. And finally, when it is forced 
to witness the substitution, by the osteoblasts, of bone for 
cartilage, and the excavation of the bone by the osteoclasts, 
a work where there are no "missing links" and no oppor- 
tunity for conjecture, but everything is seen and known, it 
stands speechless and helpless. For here, there is obviously 
no evolution, but, on the contrary, a discontinuance of the 
old process of construction, and the creation of a new and 
different process to take its place. 



314 CONCLUSION 

We are, therefore, as intelligent and reasoning beings, 
compelled to the conclusion that he who said in his heart 
"There is no God" was rightly characterized as a "fool" and 
that he who says "There is no such thing as an immortal 
soul," belongs in the same category. For even the atheist 
cannot regard the works of nature without recognizing their 
obvious "mechanism," strangely forgetful of the fact that 
mechanism necessarily implies contrivance, and that there 
can be no contrivance without the exercise of mind. 

There are millions of intelligent men and women who 
believe that they have had personal communion with God, 
and who find in their own experiences ample justification 
for their religious faith. So long as the world had no clear 
conception of the actuality of telepathic communication 
from mind to mind, it was natural that it should reject 
such revelations, and, indeed, all revelation, as fictions of 
an excited imagination or of pious fraud. Men thought that 
revelation, to be entitled to credence, ought to be delivered 
orally, in spoken words, as in an interview between God and 
man; or, at least that some Divine Power must take hold of 
the arm and compel it to write. Eevelation, unsupported 
by evidence such as that, was deemed entitled to no con- 
sideration. 

But with the knowledge that telepathy is an established 
scientific fact, there is no longer any reason for rejecting 
the testimony of credible witnesses that they are conscious 
of having had communion directly with the Divine Spirit. 
There may, indeed, be many enthusiastic devotees, and many 
other persons who are prone to mistake fancy for fact, 
whose judgment on such matters may not be entirely reli- 
able; but there is no reason to doubt the testimony of thou- 
sands of pious men and women who conscientiously believe 
that they have communed personally with God. 



CONCLUSION 315 

This great mass of testimony to personal communion with 
God is, of itself, evidence that God exists and that the soul 
is immortal. Many persons feel the need of no other evi- 
dence upon which to hase their religious faith, and are 
happy in the consolation which they derive from it. 

On March 7, 1908, Otto Hauser, a Swiss archeologist, 
unearthed, at Moustier, Switzerland, the skeleton of a pri- 
meval man who had been buried there with religious cere- 
monies more than 500,000 years ago. The stratum of clay 
in which his bones were found was lower in the geological 
scale than that in which the Neanderthal skull had been 
discovered years before, thus proving beyond a reasonable 
doubt that the Moustier man's remains are the oldest yet 
known. They were exhumed in the presence of a number 
of scientists, who took careful notes of all the details, and 
verified the evidences of religious interment. The skeleton 
showed that man, five or six hundred thousand } r ears ago, 
was hardly yet able to stand fully erect on his two legs, and 
that his chin and forehead had not yet completely developed. 
And yet that man, and those who buried him, believed in a 
future life ! Where did they get that knowledge ? They 
could hardly have got it from a contemplation of the won- 
ders of nature, nor from any abstruse process of reasoning. 
But if some of them dreamed trance-dreams, as occasion- 
ally men do now, and if the prophesies of the dreams came 
true; or if mysterious premonitions warned them of coming 
events, as many persons have been warned in later times; 
then there is no occasion to wonder that more than half a 
million } r ears ago men believed in a life beyond the grave, 
but only occasion to wonder that many of their descendants, 
with all the light of modern science, and with fully developed 
legs and chins, are, in some respects, not as wise as their 
remotest ancestors. 



APPENDIX. 

Affidavit of Mrs. Allen. (See page 309.) 

I am the widow of William H. Allen, who died suddenly 
at Edgemont, South Dakota, on the twenty-fourth day of 
March, A. D., 1906, seventeen days after his fifty-second 
birthday. He was for several years before his death Super- 
intendent of Public Schools at Edgemont. 

Two years before his death, and when in full health, he 
had a strange forewarning that it would take place about 
the time of his fifty-second birthday, but that, if it should 
not occur at that time, then he would live on till past the 
age of eighty years. The particulars of that forewarning, as 
he related them to me, were as follows: 

He had a vivid dream in which he seemed to see a chart 
of his life spread out before him, marked off in eight sec- 
tions, each representing ten years. After the end of the last 
of the eight sections, the line was broken off. While he 
was examining these sections one after the other, and count- 
ing them, he observed a dark shadow across the line when he 
had passed over the end of the fifth section, and wondered 
what it meant. It seemed to be revealed to him that it 
meant that at that time sickness or danger of some kind 
would befall him, and he was warned repeatedly to be very 
careful of himself about that time, but that if he passed 
that crisis he would live until past eighty. He then began 
to examine the figure very carefully, to see if he could deter- 
mine the exact time when this calamity would befall him. 
As the result of his examination, he decided that it would 

316 



APPENDIX 317 

be about bis fifty-second birthday, and about two months 
before his schools would close, for that Spring. All these 
were experiences of the dream. 

On the tenth of March, 1906, my husband suffered a light 
stroke of apoplexy. In a few days he apparently recovered 
from it, and considered himself perfectly well again. Dur- 
ing that time he told me that never a day had passed, since 
the dream, that he did not think of it, and that, since the 
holidays, and especially since his birthday, he had been ex- 
pecting this illness; "But," he added, "now I am well and 
all right again, and I feel perfectly confident that I shall 
live past my eightieth year." 

He resumed his official duties, and seemed to be en- 
tirely well; but on the 24th he returned home, complaining 
of feeling indisposed. After a time, while sitting in his 
chair, his head dropped, and he died instantly from a sec- 
ond stroke. 

Ida Ann Allen. 

Subscribed in my presence and sworn to before me this 
28th day of May, 1909. 

C. H. Kubat. 
Notary Public. 
[L. S.] 



JtQV 10 1903 



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